Anyone else not going to test children anymore

[Baileysforchristmas]

My daughter is 15, she said none of her friends are testing anymore. Why should I make her test twice a week now? All it will do is stop her going to school and us getting on with our lives, it will also stop her bubble going to school and she will get blamed. My daughter didn’t go to school for 3 months while flights were coming into the country from other parts of the world which could do as they please. Why should I take the risk of putting my daughter’s life on hold, also the more we test the more the numbers go up, Europe’s not testing secondary school children twice a week so obviously their numbers won’t be showing as high.

The USA has already vaccinating a large number of their secondary age children. That’s how you stop the spread in schools.

I’m in NI and they’ve only just started LFTs for all secondary kids, I would really like to think that by September they would be vaccinating them. Plenty of other countries already are and are finding it safe and effective. And if they didn’t give away 18-30 year olds’ vaccines to other countries I don’t see why they should be denying them to other teenagers.

@ineedaholidaynow

Are the people saying they would never test their kids, does this include if they have symptoms?

We have always done pcr tests and our whole household have isolated while waiting for the results when one is symptomatic.

We have also all gone for pcr tests as advised when our area had high numbers recently.

We have pretty much followed every rule and guideline to the letter so far, including cancelling holidays and numerous other things like everyone else.

We have lateral flow tested weekly all along too, but unfortunately I now feel exactly the same as the op.

If the government were serious about keeping numbers under control they would have put high risk countries like India on the red list earlier, with no notice period to return. They would have also made sure people complied with quarantine. No one has been fined or prosecuted for not following the rules which were a legal requirement. Because they didn’t do this, it sends the message that they are happy for people to carry on as normal. I don’t agree with this but obviously have no control of government policy. It would have been sensible to hold off letting numerous people in from abroad when a new variant had been identified and get as many people vaccinated as possible. We were in a great position before this with low numbers despite schools being back.

Because at population level, it makes a difference

@0None0

Because at population level, it makes a difference

Sorry, my quote failed. I was responding to the question what’s the point of using lateral flow tests when they are do inaccurate

@osbertthesyrianhamster

I find it ludicrous to test people who are not ill en mass so I don't and they don't, either.

Are you against newborn health screening? Blood tests during pregnancy? Ultrasounds?
What about mammograms? Cervical smears? Bowel screening?
Regular eye tests? 6-monthly dental check ups?

Do you have an annual boiler check? Electricity safety inspection? What about having a survey done before buying a house?

I mean, why do any of these things if there's no signs of trouble?

Neither of mine, or myself or my partner have ever had a test throughout the whole pandemic. Simply because we have never been close contacts or had symptoms.

@halcyondays

The USA has already vaccinating a large number of their secondary age children. That’s how you stop the spread in schools.

I’m in NI and they’ve only just started LFTs for all secondary kids, I would really like to think that by September they would be vaccinating them. Plenty of other countries already are and are finding it safe and effective. And if they didn’t give away 18-30 year olds’ vaccines to other countries I don’t see why they should be denying them to other teenagers.

I'd like to know how old you are and whether you have kids as I think you lost the plot if you encourage the idea of kids to be vaccinated with an experimental vaccine 🤦🏻‍♀️

If it was so important to education and on a population level, why does the government not invest properly in routine and accurate pcr testing on asymptomatic people of all ages? It’s almost as if the government thought, oh shit we’ve spent a fortune on these shit inaccurate tests for Boris’s moonshot testing plan, we can’t just bin them it’ll be a scandal! Misuse of public funds on new technology that doesn’t work. What can we fob them off on? Something we don’t value very much? Ah, education...

We can combine this with a cumbersome shit reporting process where the software doesn’t save children’s details, so the parents have to reinput basic details for each child every time they test and report. Taking the best part of an hour for a large family to all test and all report. Oh and we won’t share the test results with schools, they will need parents to complete a completely different IT software process to report each child’s results.

We no longer use LFT’s and I am ashamed. Ashamed of our shit government that employ psychology to turn us against each other, blaming people for not engaging with LFT testing when the whole thing is so farcical.

@AmyVindaloo*
Never tested my kids and never will
@Watapalava
Me neither

Even with symptoms?

Why don’t you sit down with a price of paper and work it out. Give an R value of 4, (7 had been mentioned in some areas without mitigation’s this week) Calculate the spread with no asymptomatic school children caught , and all of them spreading it. Then calculate it with half of asymptomatic carriers caught, and isolated to prevent spread

That is the value of lateral flow tests.

It’s a very simple exercise. The value of the tests will very quickly become obvious to you

12 year old dd has refused to have any tests ,she cant stand the thought of having to put the swab to back of the throat and of course shes heard all the kids that do have the tests moaning about how it makes them feel like they will throw up , im not forcing her either , iv never done a test since this whole thing started either

@0None0

These teens that won’t test/ wear masks etc. I wonder how they are goi g to feel about themselves in 5 years time. I wonder how they are going to present their decisions to others in the future. How are they going to explain to their future 12year old son, for example, that in a time of international crisis, they personally did not step up and tolerate a bit of mild inconvenience and discomfort. How will they justify this to a future 19 year old grand daughter.

I suspect many of them won’t y admit it. I suspect it will become a shameful secret that they hope no one knows.

im sure these teens you speak off are not going to be even thinking about this stuff in 5 years time , let alone harbouring it as a shameful secret , a teen not testing for covid is not quite on par with murdering somebody although i have a feeling you will say it is lol

@toocold54

locked up for 10 days under false pretences and not only me or my family but everyone I have been in contact with

What’s the point in coming on here and sayings things that are completely false!

Testing is non-compulsory so if you/your child finds it really distressing then don’t do it.
But if your reasons are because you want the restrictions eased then not doing the tests is completely counter productive and those who are fed up with the restrictions should be the ones encouraging people to test the most.

This

Actually this did happen, my daughter’s boyfriend had a false LFT, everyone in his bubble had to isolate, I had mums WhatsApp me I never even knew saying how terrible it was, he took a pcr test which was negative, the school didn’t let the children back for 5 days, no wonder my daughter doesn’t want to do it anymore.

It saddens me that so many in society only think of themselves now. Yes - there have been so many faults of others in government etc but that doesn't mean you should join in - that's a poor society to live in. As said it takes a few minutes - hardly a huge effort.

[quote Baileysforchristmas]**@Chessie678* I agree my daughter is healthy, why keep testing all the time, shoving something up your nose and down your throat twice a week which makes you gag. How many adults test twice a week? Do teachers test regularly? Do you @0None0*?[/quote]
Yes - teachers do test twice a week. An act to try to protect the school community. The headteacher collects the data etc.

LF has picked up quite a lot of asymptomatic cases at my children's school. It's boring to test 5 of us but it's the responsible thing to do. I want our lives back to normal so will carry on doing our bit. Plus a lot of us teaching staff are not fully vaccinated yet.

@Baileysforchristmas

Well if there are any cases in the school teachers will pick it up. My daughter won’t be testing, I think she’s immune anyway, she has had so many of her friends have had it last year, she never tested positive and no one in our family have had it. Now we are all vaccinated accept my daughter we’re even less likely to get it.

It is people thinking they know it all that is part of the problem. I know it's just a cold - the test then shows they're positive.

Never did, never will.

OP I’m not sure what your point is. If I understand correctly, you are happy for your child to potentially spread covid around their school because some people were allowed to travel to India?

We can combine this with a cumbersome shit reporting process where the software doesn’t save children’s details, so the parents have to reinput basic details for each child every time they test and report. Taking the best part of an hour for a large family to all test and all report. Oh and we won’t share the test results with schools, they will need parents to complete a completely different IT software process to report each child’s results.

The reporting process is shit... but surely it's better to test and not report (assuming it's negative) like I've done on many occasions, than not test at all because the reporting is too much of a faff.

We can combine this with a cumbersome shit reporting process where the software doesn’t save children’s details, so the parents have to reinput basic details for each child every time they test and report. Taking the best part of an hour for a large family to all test and all report

That’s not right. You just create an account for your child. Takes me about two minutes to report both mine and his.

This is why teachers should have been vaccinated after healthcare staff, like they were in many parts of the world.

OP is fine because she’s been vaccinated. Sod the other teachers/their families/households of her DCs contacts. There’s only a few weeks left.

teachers at risk were prioritised because they'd have been on the top 9 categories

data has shown time and time again teachers are way down the list of at risk jobs

the fact gps took so long to get trough group 6 demonstrated that vaccination by job wold have been tediously slow

those teachers and other people currently unvaccinated have almost zero risk now i honestly don't have a clue what they are so worried about.

and don't all bullshit about long covid - none of these cases have seen a gp - they completed a questionnaire and people were diagnosed if they had any symptoms lasting over 4 weeks. The most common age group is middle age women - no shit - i'm knackered having home schooled and worked throughout but doesnt make it long covid

Ds's haven't recently. Didn't mean to forget, only just realised from reading thud thread. But there are no delta cases in any of our local schools. Head sends weekly email. I think it's just not as important atm, if cases start we will start again of course.