DD had to have a lateral flow test to go to a 21st - would you ask for it?

[Bouledeneige]

DD was invited to go to a 21st during last week. I'm not sure on numbers but I think there were 12 of them there at a pub marquee. The hosts parents required her to take a lateral flow test today before going. They have no members of the family with vulnerable health conditions. She got some tests a few weeks ago from people giving them out in the street so it wasn't any extra bother.

Would you also request such a thing if it were your DC's 21st? I ask because my DD's 21st is in August and she plans to party in our garden - probably with similar numbers. It hadn't occurred to me to do something similar. I have been double jabbed and taken part in the Imperial antibodies research project which shows I'm positive for antibodies. The only other person who lives here out of uni term time is my DS.

Great idea. Who wants their 21st to be remembered for infecting everyone?

@GalesThisMorning

I'm not following you, *@MiddleParking* - did I put you down? It wasnt meant as a put down! The more people willing to test the better in my book.

Not me personally, obviously, but you clearly thought you did something clever with “you’ll get there in the end!”

Everyone one I know is double jabbed or a student so even if people did get infected it won't really matter. Will it?

If anyone has it and passes it on it may not matter to all of your vaccinated/low risk but what if they are asymptomatic going to supermarkets or pubs etc and pass it on there.

It seems sensible to me and it isn't difficult. I am doing it every week as a precaution (aim for twice but usually ends up once). If enough people do it then the asymptomatic spreaders will be reduced.

@MiddleParking hey no harm meant! Listen, we're all taking steps to get back to normal. Its going to look differently for different people. The main thing is for everyone to do their bit, which includes testing and vaccinating. We'll get there

No I would not, this madness had to end!

I imagine there are also people who will refuse to go to parties where the hosts do not require everyone to do a test beforehand.

@towers14

No I would not, this madness had to end!

The LFTs are a measure designed to help end all of this.

"The madness has to end" .

That's what regular testing is doing. Test, find the odd case and stop it in its tracks. That way normality lies.

Really sensible. I went to an outdoor event with 30 people at the weekend and did one despite having had covid and 2 vaccinations. Its about stopping the spread not the immediate risk to me, there were people at the party yet to have any vaccinations so seems only reasonable. It's a 2 min job and they are free.

No. I don’t test for anything else if I’ve had a vaccinations, have no symptoms and is more than 99% likely I won’t die from it, and this is no different.

@megletthesecond

"The madness has to end" .

That's what regular testing is doing. Test, find the odd case and stop it in its tracks. That way normality lies.

Normality is when we accept a certain level of risk in our lives, just like pre COVID.

@loulouljh

I would take the opposite view..I would be horrified if anyone asked me to do this and would politely decline the invitation to attend!

Same here I have already pondered this as I have a couple of friends with birthdays coming up and I did wonder if they would ask. In that age group most of us won't have been vaccinated, or only just.

Jeepers. I read this and thought “what??? Such an over reaction.” I can’t believe how many people think this a sensible idea! Is this really what we’ve come to?

@Ostara212 would you truly prefer not to see your friends who you haven’t probably seen much in the last year and not get to celebrate their birthdays with them, than do a 2 minute lateral flow test that is free? If so, why? I don’t mean to be rude I’m just interested as i can’t get my head around that point of view.

Absolutely ridiculous.

@bumbleymummy

Jeepers. I read this and thought “what??? Such an over reaction.” I can’t believe how many people think this a sensible idea! Is this really what we’ve come to?

YES isn't it great? We've finally come round to the idea that by testing often and stopping the spread as much as we can until as many people as possible are vaccinated, we'll find a way out of this sooner. Science is brilliant.

No, I don’t think it’s great at all. I think it’s unnecessary and is just continuing the state of fear and suspicion we’ve been living in for the last year instead of allowing us to go back to behaving normally and accepting small risks.

I do agree that science is brilliant though. It’s great that we’ve been able to vaccinate the people who were most likely to become seriously ill/die.

"No, I don’t think it’s great at all. I think it’s unnecessary and is just continuing the state of fear and suspicion we’ve been living in for the last year instead of allowing us to go back to behaving normally and accepting small risks"

🤦‍♀️

We are literally one week out of lockdown. Scientists are telling us that we have not vaccinated enough of the population yet to have achieved herd immunity, and that with more transmissible variants circulating there is a likelihood that another very significant wave of COVID could put as many people in hospital as there were in the last wave.

How in the world does it seem a good time to throw caution to the wind and hope for the best? If the worst case scenario ends up happening we will end up back in lockdown. If this scenario can potentially be mitigated by small steps such as regular LFT why would we not take such simple precautions? Attitudes like this literally boggle my mind.

[quote Peaplant20]@Ostara212 would you truly prefer not to see your friends who you haven’t probably seen much in the last year and not get to celebrate their birthdays with them, than do a 2 minute lateral flow test that is free? If so, why? I don’t mean to be rude I’m just interested as i can’t get my head around that point of view.[/quote]
This is too nuanced for a forum but I'll try to precis

It depends on the person. Someone I'm close with, clinically vulnerable inviting me to their home for a 1:1, yes.

Someone who just has a party and wants presents, won't notice me and will likely be very drunk, no.

There's a snobbery too. Last year a friend complained that a waiter was too close to him in a restaurant. I don't know how you wait tables without getting close.

Rationality has gone out of the window.

I'm not chasing fun by means of a test. Soon I will be on a commuter train again.

If you meet friends in a pub, they must be okay with unvaccinated untested people around. So why do I have to take a test?

The friends who can't calm down at this point....I don't know. Tomorrow I'm chatting with a CEV friend and I'll be interested to know what she thinks.

Are these people wanting "tests for guests" going to the supermarket?

The idea of "test to be safe" is a path to more lockdown, not less.

There is no level of safety theatre good enough.

Had a friends 50th party in her garden at the weekend and she asked if everyone could do a lateral flow beforehand because not everyone there had been vaccinated. I thought it was a good idea and didn’t mind

No it’s not reasonable. It’s an privacy intrusion. Ppl who wish to have been vaccinated. Did they ask to see proof of tests too?

@Whatshouldicallme

"No, I don’t think it’s great at all. I think it’s unnecessary and is just continuing the state of fear and suspicion we’ve been living in for the last year instead of allowing us to go back to behaving normally and accepting small risks"

🤦‍♀️

We are literally one week out of lockdown. Scientists are telling us that we have not vaccinated enough of the population yet to have achieved herd immunity, and that with more transmissible variants circulating there is a likelihood that another very significant wave of COVID could put as many people in hospital as there were in the last wave.

How in the world does it seem a good time to throw caution to the wind and hope for the best? If the worst case scenario ends up happening we will end up back in lockdown. If this scenario can potentially be mitigated by small steps such as regular LFT why would we not take such simple precautions? Attitudes like this literally boggle my mind.

I don’t see that low risk young people attending a 21st birthday in a marquee is ‘throwing caution to the wind’ Even without all of the top 9 groups being vaccinated, hospitalisations and deaths are now very low. Immunity levels from the vaccine and previous infection are well over 70% now in the UK (source: ONS) and early evidence shows that both the vaccine and previous infection can provide some protection against the Indian strain.

We can’t live our lives worrying about very unlikely ‘what if’ scenarios. It’s just miserable. For what it’s worth, ‘doom and gloom’ attitudes like yours boggle my mind.

Lateral flow tests are not reliable enough to use in this situation. I work in healthcare and we've been short staffed so many times since they were introduced whilst waiting for the pcr test to come back. Their reliability has been questioned a lot but someone is making money from them and reading these comments it seems like they give people a false sense of security.

www.theguardian.com/world/2021/apr/15/rapid-covid-testing-in-england-may-be-scaled-back-over-false-positives