Parents should stop doing lateral flows on their kids unless they're actually unwell

[onlytuesday]

Unpopular opinion perhaps, let's see!

I have a child in year 6, 10 days left of school. Really want her to have a good ending and be able to do all the leavers stuff planned next week but terrified of getting that ping from school!

Given that next week the government are basically saying f* it, would it be unreasonable for parents to stop doing lateral flows unless their child is clearly unwell, in order to keep as many of them in school as possible til the end of term?

Probably gonna get shot down here, but people do realise that there is going to be a time, in the not too distant future, when all this testing is going to stop. Personally I don't think that day can come too soon. Unlike the rest of the world we seem to be actively looking for cases, which is probably the main reason our numbers seem so much higher.
Anecdotally, the only people I know that have tested positive recently have had a sniffle.and sneezes, they wouldn't have been tested a few.months ago, they'd have just thought they had a bit of a cold or hay-fever.
Testing needs to be scaled back to those that are actually ill, how it is now is simply fuelling the fear and paranoia that is evident on some of the threads on this board.

I still don't see how this far into the pandemic people don't realise what a LFT is for.

@pastabest

LFTs are to pick up infection in people who are symptomless,

So would be pretty pointless parents doing them on unwell children.

They still work if you have symptoms 🙄

Lateral flow tests are for people WITHOUT symptoms.

If you are unwell you need a PCR test.

I have no idea why people cannot understand this...it really is quite basic.

I have lost count of the amount of parents who have told me...he's coughing but its not Covid I did a lateral flow test...

@MarshaBradyo

Year 6 aren’t doing LFTs are they?

No. They are for secondary school kids.

I think LFTs are a questionable policy decision, given the very high rate of false negatives. It is also possible to fake a positive result (as I have found out with a secondary kid who wanted a couple of days off).
If you want to follow guidance to the letter you should do them, but if not, noone can make you. I don't make my primary child do them.

@Streamingbannersofdawn

Lateral flow tests are for people WITHOUT symptoms.

If you are unwell you need a PCR test.

I have no idea why people cannot understand this...it really is quite basic.

I have lost count of the amount of parents who have told me...he's coughing but its not Covid I did a lateral flow test...

Only because government have said they’re for people with no symptoms. But the reality is, getting a PCR test is a nightmare. Government should have given schools PCR tests and made it quicker so that tests could be turned around faster.

I can perfectly understand why people use LFTs. They don’t know that they’re actually not very effective - government have certainly been vague on that point. So they use the “symptomless only” as a smokescreen.

But the reality is, getting a PCR test is a nightmare.

Hmm I wonder how this is going to work with this PCR instead of isolating plan for the next loosening of restrictions......

They still work if you have symptoms

Not very well! They miss loads of cases in symptomatic and asymptomatic people - they’re ridiculously inaccurate. Fine for asymptomatic testing to pick up around half of those who have covid but wouldn’t otherwise have been tested. But nowhere near good enough if you have symptoms.

@Whatever9999

Probably gonna get shot down here, but people do realise that there is going to be a time, in the not too distant future, when all this testing is going to stop. Personally I don't think that day can come too soon. Unlike the rest of the world we seem to be actively looking for cases, which is probably the main reason our numbers seem so much higher. Anecdotally, the only people I know that have tested positive recently have had a sniffle.and sneezes, they wouldn't have been tested a few.months ago, they'd have just thought they had a bit of a cold or hay-fever. Testing needs to be scaled back to those that are actually ill, how it is now is simply fuelling the fear and paranoia that is evident on some of the threads on this board.

This 100%. This constant digging around for cases in people who aren't ill is sending our case numbers sky high. A friends kid who has covid has a bit of a headache that's it. This whole thing is trashing the end of the school year for millions of children. Stop testing healthy kids and ruining the end of year for millions of others!! I know people think they're well meaning but it's the opposite which is why the whole caboodle is being abandoned on Monday!!

I also have a year 6 dc who's whole year got pinged on Sunday- it's awful for them... but much worse for the vulnerable that they could pass it on to

People do realise that the cases will exist whether they are tested and found or not don't they? I can't quite figure out if people are getting this.

@NotImpossible

People do realise that the cases will exist whether they are tested and found or not don't they? I can't quite figure out if people are getting this.

Yes they will exist, but unlike every other illness we are testing people whether ill or not. Pretty sure if we screened everybody for the common cold (the symptoms of which actually now seem pretty similar to the new list of main symptoms on Zoe) we'd find that we had 10s if not 100s of thousands of cases a day. And before you say colds don't kill.or hospitalise they do , I've been in the position where my son came within a hair's bredth of picu from a common cold.

@NotImpossible

People do realise that the cases will exist whether they are tested and found or not don't they? I can't quite figure out if people are getting this.

But if people know and keep their offspring at home instead of sending them in 'because they don't want to miss the special event on Friday' or lying about their kid being off with 'feeling under the weather', you don't end up with 18 other kids, including ones who are CEV, testing positive after sitting near to the original kid all week when if they'd been off from Monday, they might not have caught it.

Can’t imagine many people are regularly doing LFTs on year 6? The LFT is secondary only.

I wouldn’t test my primary age child without symptoms and no one is asking us too.

@NeverDropYourMoonCup Agreed - that's exactly the point I was going for. It almost l seems as if some people are blaming the tests for the high Covid numbers!

It almost l seems as if some people are blaming the tests for the high Covid numbers!

Are they? I thought it was just a point that you can't compare our figures to places that don't test or with when we weren't testing.

I don't really know what the answer is. The new plan of PCRs instead of isolating is going to require a good few logistics to ensure the increase of people requiring tests have adequate provisions made for them.

As multiple pp have said, PCR if symptoms

Opt out of lateral flows if you must but if they have symptoms please get a PCR test

Yes they will exist, but unlike every other illness we are testing people whether ill or not.

1. We test people to find out if they are ill all the time. It's literally the basis of preventative medicine. Never had a smear?

1. Have you also never watched a sci fi film? "Carriers" are the most dangerous of the infected precisely because they spread the disease far and wide and nobody knows they are doing it. Unless you have testing.

1. No symptoms or easily dismissed symptoms doesn't mean covid isn't doing damage.

We didn't know about Long Covid until we did, we didn't know covid could damage your brain until we did.

There'll be a lot more we don't know yet.

Something that can cross the blood brain barrier and give you neurological symptoms is not something to spread about lightly.

Well you look at case positivity rate to give you a clue. Clearly number of positive test results are up more than number of test conducted percentage wise.