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Original poster

Normality hinges on rapid testing

68 replies

Racoonworld · 05/04/2021 14:47

On the BBC Hancock is saying that normality hinges on rapid testing for everyone. How long is this going to be for? I don’t mind testing for a month or two but I’m not doing it long term. Weren’t the vaccines supposed to be getting us back to normality?

OP posts:
Lemons1571 · 05/04/2021 18:58

@StealthPolarBear

I'm also worried about false reassurance. "I've got a cough today but I did a lft yesterday and it was negative so I'm fine, not going to bother isolating." The messaging isn't at all clear.
They are not used correctly. This is happening a lot in schools. Kid has a tickly throat, parent doesn’t want to isolate the whole household, they do a LFT on child which is negative so everyone in the household cracks on.
Quit4me · 05/04/2021 19:00

The way it’s going we will all be required to upload a test (date stamped) for each member of our household, however many times weekly in order to get a tick in our virtual covid passports which we have to show everywhere we want to go.
The stuff happening now would have seems literally bonkers 1 year ago

reformedcharacters · 05/04/2021 19:02

@TristantheTyrannosaurus

Who is still listening to this utter fool?
This
MarcelineMissouri · 05/04/2021 19:05

@MimiPigeon

I don’t see how this strategy can work when according to the BMJ the test has a false negative rate of 40%. So it misses 4 out of every 10 people who have Covid.
If done properly and only used by people with no symptoms then those 60% of people who are being picked up as positive are people that otherwise would not have got tested at all and carried merrily on their way. So although they may not pick up a high % of cases you need to think of it the other way - none of those cases would get picked up at all without these tests.

That being said I’m not a fan and I don’t think many people will go for it particularly those who cannot take the risk of then having to isolate if they test positive. I already test twice a week as I work in a school but I’m lucky that I know I’d then be off on full pay if I ended up testing positive. I think it is hard to imagine you could feel perfectly healthy but still have coronavirus.

IcedPurple · 05/04/2021 19:08

I hope there is huge opposition to this ridiculous idea. There really should be.

RosieLemonade · 05/04/2021 19:08

Can someone explain to me (and I am going to sound really dense.) why you shouldn't do the LFT if you have symptoms?

savethegrannies · 05/04/2021 19:09

@IcedPurple

I hope there is huge opposition to this ridiculous idea. There really should be.
There would be if we actually had an opposition party instead of a wet fart masquerading as the leader of the Labour Party.
StealthPolarBear · 05/04/2021 19:13

Exactly what MarcelineMissouri said. If you as an individual want to know if you're positive or negative then it's probably not that helpful (unless it comes up positive). But at a population level it should catch more than without testing. Is it worth it?

gingermcwhinger · 05/04/2021 19:21

@RosieLemonade

Can someone explain to me (and I am going to sound really dense.) why you shouldn't do the LFT if you have symptoms?
The lateral flow test has a fairly high false negative rate. It's a very quick, cheap and easy way of screening asymptomatic cases. The PCR tests are still the gold standard for screening, so if you have a symptoms you should jump straight to one of those.
Lemons1571 · 05/04/2021 19:21

@RosieLemonade

Can someone explain to me (and I am going to sound really dense.) why you shouldn't do the LFT if you have symptoms?
Because there is a reasonable chance that an LFT might show negative when you’ve actually got covid. That’s known as a false negative (4 out of 10 people with covid test negative with LFT tests, but they are in reality positive).

The nhs want everyone with symptoms to use an accurate PCR test, which rarely give the wrong answer.

But, looking at it the other way, they can’t do PCR testing for people without symptoms. Everyone and their households would be isolating twice a week waiting for the result (!) and the test centres / labs would be overwhelmed with the amount of tests they would need to process.

StealthPolarBear · 05/04/2021 19:23

And that's what's worrying me. People with symptoms will rely on the lfts

lljkk · 05/04/2021 19:31

Another thread said that the government contracts for rapid testing will run until April or later 2023. So 2 years OP.

EileenGC · 05/04/2021 19:36

Come to Germany... We now need a negative test done on the day to enter any kind of shop or building that’s non-essential. Supermarkets, pharmacies, hospitals and similar are obviously exempt. They keep saying retail and museums are open but they’re practically empty.

Tests can’t be done at home, and you must also make an appointment, and register on the business’ app/website prior to going there.

It’s madness. I live 10 mins walk away from H&M. What used to be a quick 30 min trip now involves hours of booking appointments, filling in forms and finding a testing centre that has slots for the day I want to go to H&M. Then queuing up, doing the test and waiting in the cold for 15 mins for my result.

I really hope they stop this non-sense ASAP.

RosieLemonade · 05/04/2021 19:38

@lemons1571 Thank You 😊

HarveySchlumpfenburger · 05/04/2021 19:50

@PurpleWh1teGreen

Who's friend has a LFT producing company?

It's got to be one of them.

I thought they’d already bought them. They’re just sitting in warehouses and this is a way of getting rid of them. Although it isn’t an utterly daft idea.
MercyBooth · 05/04/2021 19:52

So Herbert Skardon is moving the goalposts yet again. Well whod have thunk it Easter Hmm

Original poster
Racoonworld · 05/04/2021 20:24

@lljkk

Another thread said that the government contracts for rapid testing will run until April or later 2023. So 2 years OP.
There’s no way I’d do it for two years. I’ll happily do it until the June 21st reopening, but then that’s it for anything Covid related for me.
OP posts:
Original poster
Racoonworld · 05/04/2021 20:25

I’ll have had my second vaccine by then too.

OP posts:
EileenGC · 05/04/2021 20:30

until the June 21st reopening, but then that’s it for anything Covid related for me.

You might need to readjust your expectations. Covid won’t magically disappear on the 21st of June!

MimiPigeon · 05/04/2021 22:08

If I ever got a positive, there would be absolutely nothing stopping me from me from ticking the box for a negative result
Well exactly. If it’s an important event or an expensive ticket people will just lie. If they can’t afford to isolate they’ll just lie. Germany has the right idea using test centres - you can’t lie then.

Dolciedolly · 05/04/2021 22:14

@bumbleymummy

Oh great. Just one more ‘one more thing’ we have to do to get back to normality Hmm Goalposts moving yet again.
I know unbelievable
middleager · 05/04/2021 22:42

How much has been spent on the seemingly infinite tests?

Is there a fast saliva test used elsewhere (USA?)

Iveforgotten · 05/04/2021 23:14

@EileenGC really? Do you think that’s what’s coming to us? Sounds like an utter pain in the arse. Poor shops.

EileenGC · 05/04/2021 23:16

@Iveforgotten I hope not. It really is a disaster. From tomorrow they’ve announced it’s also compulsory for hairdressers and when they open restaurants (possibly next month). It’s a shambles. People are put off going anywhere.

rosy71 · 05/04/2021 23:21

I was hoping we could stop the lateral flow tests now lots of people are vaccinated. I've been doing them since January. Now we all have to do them in our house, it's a nightmare! The amount of plastic waste generated by them really worries me too.