To believe that a lot of people don’t go bother to test for covid and don’t isolate when they should

[Fedupofcovid78]

Just to say I’ve followed all rules throughout including the social contact and isolation ones. But to be spreading as it is I honestly believe people suspect they might have it and don’t test as they don’t want it confirmed that they do and infect people.

I absolutely think it's down to having to work. Lots of employers aren't sympathetic to absences. And lots of employers don't pay more than statutory sick pay which isn't enough to survive on.

So if you are a parent, salaried and get full sick benefits then yes I think you are more likely to take a test and isolate. It's not to do with being more responsible, it's more to do with being able to be more responsible. There won't be bills unpaid or any hungry children.

If you are a parent who is on zero hours contract and paid for hours worked, no company sickness benefits, how are you meant to pay the bills to support your family on £96 a week? If you have it mildly I expect many will chose to carry on and work to bring enough in to pay the bills.

@Warhertisuff
Why not? Because my job involves lots of exposure to different people and I think it’s the right thing to do do weekly LFTs. If I get a positive I may or may not do a pcr but it won’t stop me from doing the right thing and isolating. I won’t need a pcr to do that.

Twice weekly I mean.

I thought the advice was to do LFT twice weekly, symptoms or no symptoms. I’d be surprised if many people were doing that

I'm self-employed. If I isolate, I don't get paid. Actually, I lose money because people pay me in advance, I get all the resources needed and then if I can't deliver on the day I have to cancel and refund. Yet I've already bought everything required that can't immediately be used for something else.

So I don't do lateral flow tests. I would do a PCR if I had symptoms and I'd isolate if T&T contacted me (had to do that back in May and last money when I cancelled). But I'm the breadwinner so we literally cannot afford to do asymptomatic tests.

Sorry if that makes me selfish.

Loads. Multiple kids in my son's class in and out and snotty with 'just colds' - all with WFH, comfortably off families, who either didn't want - until finally one parent tested and it was covid (and because that parent was an immigrant in a council house, there were then whispers about 'certain communities')

I think a lot of people are starting to feel pressure from employers not to isolate

[quote Frazzled2207]@Warhertisuff
Why not? Because my job involves lots of exposure to different people and I think it’s the right thing to do do weekly LFTs. If I get a positive I may or may not do a pcr but it won’t stop me from doing the right thing and isolating. I won’t need a pcr to do that.[/quote]
But if you had a positive LFT why would you not do a PCR test but isolate anyway, when if you took a PCR and it was negative you wouldn't have to?! That doesn't make any sense at all...

Because false positives are very rare. And if I knew I’d been in contact with someone positive and was ill it would be extremely unlikely to be wrong.
Even if I did get a pcr, if a family member subsequently fell ill while isolating I really don’t see any benefit of getting a pcr for them if they had clearly caught it from me.

But nobody would be tracked @Frazzled2207? Even when the rules change for the vaccinated I’d appreciate a heads up so I know to perhaps be more wary of any mild symptoms and test if needed. Plus if I did have to isolate my employer would require something official, they wouldn’t just do it on my say so.

If you don’t come into contact with anyone who might need official notice I kind of get it, but a positive LFT won’t trigger tracing.

If we were also isolating already and a second person was positive there would be nobody.

If I was positive I would let everyone who I’d seen know and trust them to make the right decision. I am not currently going to bars, restaurants etc so the only people who’d seen me would be clients. Family and close friends and I don’t need some £34bn outsourced agency to contact them on my behalf.

Ps I’m not being obnoxious just stating reasons why I (and many others) might not seek a pcr.

That’s fair enough @Frazzled2207, I’m just pointing out that in my own circumstance telling me without triggering anything official with a PCR would just put me in a really awkward position. I couldn’t isolate and even access ssp with ‘my friend said..’ my employer just wouldn’t accept it and I suspect would go down the line of marking it as unofficial absence if I insisted. I’d rather not know.

Indeed I am self employed so different. Of course if a close contact needed official confirmation of needing to SI I would do what I needed to do to ensure they got that

I don’t think this is black and white. Every bodies lives are different. Some people would find it easy to isolate some others not.

I would have lost my job last year if I had tested positive. How would I have fed my son then?
My new job is okay and I would test if I thought I had it.
I’m not prepared to judge anyone on this issue. After the last year, loss of jobs , income , family etc etc. People are just trying to get by and pay their bills. I’m not going to judge anyone who has to make that kind of decision. Life is hard enough at the moment.

@Shelovesamystery

A lot of people can't afford to self isolate. If a positive test means that you won't be able to pay your bills that month/will get into debt/don't know how you will feed your kids etc then taking a test is a big risk.

I agree with this - that and the fact that the whole household has to isolate whilst waiting for the results - because if you tested everytime anyone coughed or sneezed youd be isolating a lot and not everyone can afford to.

It’s frustrating, DS has just tested positive after showing symptoms on day 10 of isolation, 2nd isolation within last month, so he will be have been isolating for 30 days, if close family members all subsequently test positive on day 10 of isolations we won’t be going anywhere this summer. Fortunately we have jobs that will allow the isolations, but I appreciate not everyone does and the possibility of all our summer plans being wiped out could make me weep for our DC, if we couldn’t pay the bills then don’t know where we would be, I can understand the reluctance to test.

Yes I agree and I’m one of them

I won’t test and haven’t tested throughout other than to return from Spain this week

All these bloody people testing do my head in

Causing kids to miss holidays, be isolated 2,3 times on run

Families missing plans

When all vulnerable are vaccinated

Honestly I cannot stand these people testing and track and tracking colleagues etc - clearly have no life of their own

@MereDintofPandiculation

I thought the advice was to do LFT twice weekly, symptoms or no symptoms. I’d be surprised if many people were doing that

I’m certainly NOT doing that.

The advice was that we could do twice weekly tests. They said that secondary school children should be testing twice a week - not must though.

Neither me nor DH did that.

I would if I was partaking in a risky situation (underground at peak time, wedding, pub during the Euro final etc..). But we don’t

@Watapalava

Yes I agree and I’m one of them

I won’t test and haven’t tested throughout other than to return from Spain this week

All these bloody people testing do my head in

Causing kids to miss holidays, be isolated 2,3 times on run

Families missing plans

When all vulnerable are vaccinated

Honestly I cannot stand these people testing and track and tracking colleagues etc - clearly have no life of their own

It's people like you who end up making the vulnerable ill. There's a vast difference between taking a balanced approach and not testing at all. Plenty of people can't be vaccinated yet due to age or other conditions, plenty of those people live or interact with those who are vulnerable, plenty of others will be doing the right thing and isolating with some hardship because someone else decided that what they had was a cold so didn't bother to test.

I think for some people it’s a hard pill to swallow - staying in for 10 days (especially if you have young children) whilst nightclubs are open with probably thousands of asymptomatic (and some symptomatic!) people spreading it around. It feels a bit like locking the door after the horse has bolted.
If you’ve had a positive test and are showing symptoms, you should definitely stay in - but that’s what we did for all the other bugs pre-Covid. You feel poorly - you’re off school or you miss work! Having no symptoms and simply being told you’re a “contact” - I can see why lots of people are now rebelling against this.

Ah, the intellectually challenged arrived to attempt to gaslight people into believing "the vulnerable are all vaccinated". Took you long enough

The vulnerable are vaccinated

Those that can’t will always be vulnerable so perhaps those few people have or restrict their activities rather than the rest of the entire population

The advice was that we could do twice weekly tests.

From the govt website, the LFT ordering page:

"After your test packs arrive

You should:

take a rapid lateral flow test twice a week (every 3 or 4 days)" (my emphasis)

Those that can’t will always be vulnerable so perhaps those few people have or restrict their activities rather than the rest of the entire population Like we used to say for those with disabilities, you mean? It's just tough if nowhere is wheelchair accessible, or you can't get important documents in braille?