Clinical trial in secondary school children to replace isolation of close contacts with daily testing

[noblegiraffe]

You might have thought that the government plan to replace isolation for school children with daily LF testing was binned in January when schools had to close. Not so. Apparently they realised that a planned nationwide rollout to children of an intervention when they had no idea if it would increase or decrease transmission rates in schools was not particularly well-supported.

So now they are running a clinical trial. A few schools started this on 15th March and it is being widened to more schools next week. A child who has been identified as a close contact of someone who has tested positive (not within their household as higher risk) will be able to choose 10 days of isolation or 7 days of supervised LF tests at school. Those sitting around them in lessons will not be asked if they are happy with this. Outside of school they will still be expected to isolate because of their increased risk, the testing only allows them to go to school.

Given the general picture of the government's proposals and actions - LF tests now available to all, plans for testing before sports events etc, it's clear that despite serious concerns over their sensitivity (false negatives), they will be forming a large part of future virus control measures. Operation Moonshot.

Expect to see something tested on school children rolled out to workplaces by September.

Details in this twitter thread: twitter.com/karamballes/status/1382838861714296833?s=21

[EnoughnowIthink]

It seems sensible to me to trial this. I think moving forward this is the way to go rather than isolating healthy people on the off chance they might develop symptoms

You don't think that we have an obligation to ensure that schools are as covid-safe as they can be for all children? Do you not think there will be unnecessary cases of long-covid and deaths as a result? Or do you think children with vulnerabilities don't deserve the same quality of education as their peers?

[HarveySchlumpfenburger]

I think I'd be expecting more than 1 test afterwards too. Maybe one at 3-5 days and one at 10 days. I can't see how they are accurately measuring how this affects spread, if it does. Which makes me wonder what they'll be measuring in schools.

It's a bit like, if we don't look for it, we won't find the answer we don't want. I wonder how far they've got epidemiologists or public health scientists involved in planning these.

[HedgePutty]

Do the LFT magically contain something which stops you developing covid after 7 days?
Like the paying to come out of quarantine early/stopping testing at 5days for the rich?

[noblegiraffe]

Yes, there is the issue that children don't have a choice about whether they go to school and individual consent hasn't been sought about whether they take part in this trial - schools signed up.

It is a very different kettle of fish to a gig that people have opted into (and presumably bought tickets for).

The negative outcome of this trial would be that these children are at an increased risk of catching covid.

[Wellbythebloodyhell]

@HedgePutty

Do the LFT magically contain something which stops you developing covid after 7 days?
Like the paying to come out of quarantine early/stopping testing at 5days for the rich?

Presumably they'd revert back to the twice weekly testing they are already currently doing. I suspect those who aren't already doing the twice weekly testing wouldn't opt for the daily testing anyway and choose the isolate option instead or more likely not enforce the isolation and just allow their dc 10 days off school

[supercatlady]

Rapid tests surely aren’t accurate enough for this?

[megletthesecond]

I've decided to decline the option of potential daily testing for DD. If she has to isolate so be it.

She hates tests and she hates school even more. I simply wouldn't be able to cope with the meltdowns if she was doing them daily to go somewhere she loathes.

[littlepeas]

My perfectly healthy year 7 ds is currently isolating at home despite negative lft because one of his classmates had a positive lft. They will be allowed back to school if the pcr she has taken today comes back negative - keeping everything crossed. He has been physically in school for 4 weeks this year. There are currently 10 cases per 100000 in our local area, I am hoping it was a false positive. It seems like a much better idea to test them daily to me - poor kids have missed enough school.

[megletthesecond]

little I think I'm happy to keep the 10 day isolation partly because mine haven't had to isolate once yet. Might be famous last words .

[StarCat2020]

@Cantaloupeisland because schools are magical places where COVID can't spread like everywhere else. We have tape on the floor
"World-beating magical forcefield tape"