Does anyone else think the trial club nights at Liverpool are a mistake?

[ZNation]

www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-56943652

Trial club nights 6000 people no masks or social distancing. You have to have had negative lateral test before attending and are 'encouraged' not compulsory for pcr test 5 days after.
I think this is too soon to be trialling large crowds when people can't even go in their mums house indoors

@TheWeeDonkeyFella

I just don't understand how it can be considered a trial without mandatory follow-up testing.

They did 'before' testing but without 'after' results what will they base any conclusion on?

They're going to be doing follow up testing.

@RedcurrantPuff

The problem is you can’t really make people test afterwards. You can do it before hand - no test no entry. But once people have had their gig or club and experience you really have no option but to rely on their good will.

The trial organisers know the details of all the attendees (it wasn't like a regular club night where people wander in off the street). Committing to post event testing was a condition of attending.

Something similar was done in Barcelona
www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-56899764

What's the alternative? No big events ever again?

If I had of been in the vicinity, bit (much?), younger I would've been there.

Not a mistake at all. Much needed information to be gathered from it.

Time will tell. We will see in the next fortnight.

It's a good idea, thanks to these young people doing these trials and all the fannying around testing for it means we will be get back to normal quicker, we can't stay locked up and masked forever.

@TheVampiresWife - all the news reports I have read say attendees are 'encouraged' to take a PCR test five days after the trial night but its not mandatory.

I think it's brilliant!
Also super, super jealous of those that got to attend!

So OP, how do you suggest we figure out how to go forward? Just set some arbitrary dates and follow those hoping it’ll be ok? They have to trial scenarios and study them to see how the virus is going to impact society long term. The only way to find out if different situations are going to be safe to open is by doing it in a controlled way as an experiment.

I was so happy for them and ridiculously jealous... as for caring that it's before seeing your parents etc.... go see them ffs! Are you waiting for the gov to tell you it's OK to go after a LFT when they've said you can go to a 6000 strong rave after a LFT? Honestly people's thinking and unquestionable following of the rules baffles me.

Tim Spector who runs the Zoe app said yesterday that the Covid pandemic is over in the UK. About 1 in 1000 people currently has the virus, so it's at levels similar to seasonal flu. I'm not sure when people think it's 'safe' to start opening up, and this was a carefully managed trial, not a free for all. Maybe never? Some people really are quite comfortable with the current situation, however much they might like to deny it.

@JocastaNu

Oh flipping heck. It's a trial. A scientific experiment.

It has nothing to do with whether or not you can see your Mum / best friend / bit on the side indoors before May 17th. It's about establishing what sort of set up is needed in order to enable normal life to resume, to see what effects ventilation has on air spread, and how effective mass testing is.

It's called Science and it's what will get us out of this mess.

But they won’t test them afterwards so bot sure what results they are expecting. As numbers are low at the moment, there probably won’t be a global spike following the event, however testing the participants at d5 could show if they rate of positives is higher than the community rate. This would be a good trial IMO.

Full of typos, sorry

@IcedPurple I’ve been wondering this for ages what is an acceptable level of Covid given that we will live with it forever?

So 2500ish cases a day and 20ish deaths is the norm perhaps?

[quote Allmyarseandpeggymartin]@IcedPurple I’ve been wondering this for ages what is an acceptable level of Covid given that we will live with it forever?

So 2500ish cases a day and 20ish deaths is the norm perhaps?[/quote]
I think it will be lower than that once everyone is vaccinated. Also, there is hope of some very effective cures like the one being trialled by Pfizer. Probably rates will be very low in summer but peak - still at a low level - in winter, like other respiratory illnesses.

It’s a great idea and I would have signed up to take part if it was in my area! We need to make more use of the testing for things like this, otherwise what is the point of them? But then again, I’d open up everything tomorrow if it was up to me. People who are still scared can just live a boring life at home forever more if they wish to... let the rest of us get back to living!

I agree in principal but would be a lot more useful with repeated PCR testing afterwards and a mandatory quarantine period

Otherwise it's going to be so hard to actually track the results

@GelfBride

I think it's far too early and a crazy idea.

Me too.

LFT tests aren’t foolproof and it would be very different if they were all staying in isolation after rather than going back into the community.

Well yes, LFT arent fool proof, and this is one of the reasons to have a trial ! Its because there might be someone in the crowd with asymptomatic covid, will it spread? Will there be a spike in this area? All those attending had to be registered at particular postcodes, so the idea being it would lead to a very local spike if this isn't safe to do.

Unless you really think we'll never hold indoor mass events again, we do need to work out how to do it safely. This is a trial of the method they are planning on using. Everyone having to have provided a negative LFT that day and have given their home address so can be traced if need be.

We will never ever get zero covid. Those hoping to wait for it need to realise its not going to happen. So do they think its reasonable to just stop forever gathering indoors? Or shall we try to work out a way to do it safely? And if we are going to try to do it safely, shall we have a control trial first to see if it works before reopening hundreds of venues up and down the country on the same day?

@ZNation

I'm not against the trial or nightclubs reopening at all but just think it's come before people allowed to see family indoors which doesn't make sense

What do you suggest? That we have a 'hug granny' trial? Should the government organise a scheme where you must have a test outside your grandmother's front door (overseen by bouncers) and then you are free to go inside?

LFT tests aren’t foolproof and it would be very different if they were all staying in isolation after rather than going back into the community

What's your alternative then? You are obviously very frightened as I see you constantly popping up saying things like this all over MN. What would you have people do? Hide indoors "staying safe" for how much longer? When will people like you accept that things are going back to normal?

LFT tests aren’t foolproof and it would be very different if they were all staying in isolation after rather than going back into the community

But going forward people won't be isolating following events like this. That's what the trial is for.

Rates are incredibly low at the moment (fewer than 1 in 1000 in many areas), all the vulnerable have been vaccinated as have well over half of all adults, vaccinations have been proven to cut transmission and reduce serious illness almost across the board, over 60% of the population has antibodies and by the time things open up properly, that figure will be much higher again.

If not now, when?

@IceCreamAndCandyfloss

I was so so happy to see the happy excited young people living and and having fun. Hope it goes well with the 5 day results for the rest of us getting back to more normality. Was smiling watching it !!!

Given that everyone is tested prior to attending with only those with a negative result being allowed entry, all this pointless experiment will prove is just how unreliable the accuracy of a lateral flow test actually is! I mean, if everyone is supposedly covid free upon entry then there isn't a virus to spread between each other but, if after the event the participants then test positive then either the first set of LFT results of some people were wrong or the second set are! And, if they are testing 5 days after the event then whose to say the club night was the source of their infection anyway.

When are they trialling international travel and how do I sign up?