Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Covid

Mumsnet doesn't verify the qualifications of users. If you have medical concerns, please consult a healthcare professional.

Original poster

Will people stop testing?

54 replies

Lemons1571 · 31/07/2021 08:37

Do you think that people with symptoms will increasingly choose not to get a pcr test? It kickstarts a whole chain of isolation, legal restrictions and after September, zero earnings / no furlough.

I can’t see that people will continue to put everyone else first this winter, as there is literally no benefit to most people to get that positive pcr result. I suspect most people will lie low for a couple of days with “a cold” and then get on with it.

OP posts:
Amboseli · 31/07/2021 08:41

I think you're right. It doesn't matter as long as they do stay at home for a few days with their "cold".

puppeteer · 31/07/2021 08:41

Yep.

But it is how it should be, no?

SpringheelJack · 31/07/2021 08:42

I think you could well be right. To be honest, I think there are now a lot of people who walk round with "a cold" merrily unaware of how outdated the government's symptom list is. But yes, I think deliberate non-compliance is likely to increase.

justinhawkinsnavalfluff · 31/07/2021 08:44

I think it's already happening which is why the Daily Fail thinks it's all over.

Passthecontrol · 31/07/2021 08:46

I agree. Many people will already be doing this as for some being off work means they won't be able pay their rent/feed their kids. Unless full sick pay for all becomes the norm of course people will continue to go to work with symptoms. I think eventually it will likely even be expected, say in a year or so, just like it's expected you'll turn up with 'just a cold' even if you feel awful. Or maybe that's just my profession Hmm.

Bagelsandbrie · 31/07/2021 08:46

Isn’t everyone doing this already? I think this is why the official figures are going down.

Abraxan · 31/07/2021 08:53

From the 16th August most of the isolations stop anyway.

Only the unvaccinated adults will be isolating, unless you actively have Covid yourself. Most of the 'pinged' isolations will stop.

So it's not really necessary to stop testing if you have symptoms soon.

It's a good think that symptomatic people isolate surely?

PumpkinPie2016 · 31/07/2021 08:55

I think that's absolutely what will happen. I think it's already started to be honest.

I think once Aug 16th comes and those who are double vaccinated/children under 18 no longer need to isolate if they are close contacts, there will be a massive decrease in those coming forward for tests.

As an example, I teach in a large secondary school - around 1500 pupils and probably 230 staff (including support staff). Last year when we were asked to offer pre term testing, about 70% of pupils took up the offer.

This time, we have set aside a couple of days before term starts to offer tests and when term ended, the head said around 90 kids were booked for tests. So a massive decrease.

For a lot of people, testing positive means isolating and possibly losing pay so to an extent,I can understand them not wanting to test and just having a couple of days with a 'cold'.

Whatever9999 · 31/07/2021 08:57

Well I'm pretty sure that in the not too distant future the only time people will be testing is if they are ill enough to go in to hospital or maybe as a screen before they are admitted for something else (a bit like pregnant women are routinely screened for GBS and sometimes MRSA).
After all we are moving towards treating covid more like the flu (I know, I know, it's not the flu), and we don't routinely test every sniffle just in case its the flu.

AbsolutelyPatsy · 31/07/2021 08:57

so many people have never tested,
your work wont pay you
your work dont want you to not be able to work
isnt self isolation ending anyway? for those double vaccinated from 16th August?

Tarttlet · 31/07/2021 09:02

I don't think many double vaccinated people will be testing. My partner has just tested positive for COVID - he is double vaxxed, returned multiple negative lateral flows over several days, and only got a PCR after finding out that a very close contact was positive. He has had extremely vague symptoms so far - a transient headache, not even enough to take a paracetamol for; feeling "a bit odd" but not unwell; a slightly irritated, not even sore, throat. If COVID didn't exist he wouldn't even think he had a cold. Obviously we are hoping that his symptoms don't worsen, but I think there'll be a lot of people whose symptoms are so mild they don't even register as symptoms, if that makes sense.

Freshapples · 31/07/2021 09:03

It's already happening. Tests 20% down on a couple of weeks ago. Now that they holidays are here we all all have plans: places to go and people to meet, and we don't want to disrupt them and miss out.

HelloMissus · 31/07/2021 09:08

Lots of people are already doing this to protect their jobs. Either they don’t get sick/isolation pay or their employers have made it very clear they need to be in because of short staffing, or they’re self employed and desperate to keep their livelihood.

MN is a bit of a bubble where this hasn’t occurred to many (despite them claiming to be terribly anti Tory and kind).

Abraxan · 31/07/2021 09:11

@Freshapples

It's already happening. Tests 20% down on a couple of weeks ago. Now that they holidays are here we all all have plans: places to go and people to meet, and we don't want to disrupt them and miss out.
Part of that will be because schools finished for the summer two weeks ago. Many teachers and secondary school pupils were still going twice weekly tests until the term ended. Pretty much all the teaching staff I know were still fin good them at least once a week. Many of the school children I know were too.

However they've pretty much all stopped now it's the holidays, with them only doing them if they feel ill or about to visit someone particularly vulnerable.

Freshapples · 31/07/2021 09:39

Pretty much all the teaching staff I know were still doing them at least once a week. Many of the school children I know were too.
However they've pretty much all stopped now it's the holidays, with them only doing them if they feel ill or about to visit someone particularly vulnerable

This is me and my kids. I was doing them twice a week until the end of term but unless I have reason to think I might be ill, I don't want to know if I have Covid right now. I don't want DD19 to miss out on her casual employment, I don't want DD16 to miss out on her summer plans with friends, I don't want to miss out on our family holiday in a couple of weeks.

ColettesEarrings · 31/07/2021 09:47

Yep, agree with everyone here, people have already stopped. Not a single person in my circle has said they will voluntarily test for anything other than the classic three symptoms over the next five weeks. A couple have travel tests to do and one has a lft to do before a theatre trip. Otherwise no one will be routinely testing, in order to preserve activities over the holiday period.

EffOrf · 31/07/2021 13:41

I'm retired and wouldn't be bothering with testing, I can just isolate anyway and it would at least be in peace and quiet without T&T constantly ringing me as some threads on here suggest they do.

SpringRainbow · 31/07/2021 13:50

A lot of experts suspect this is already the case to be honest.

In some ways it is horrifying but in other ways can you really blame people?

People need to work, people want to see loved ones, people want to enjoy themselves.

To be honest I am partly surprised people complied for so long.

Long term compliance was never going to work. Eventually people will start to make their own rules.

This is definitely not helped by the increasing amount of people in charge who cannot stick to their own rules.

daphnedoo12 · 31/07/2021 13:52

Yeah, if there's no financial support and peoples jobs are at risk with having time off etc then I really think people aren't going to bother testing with the risk of having to isolate

Sillysop92 · 31/07/2021 14:41

I'm a TA and I've stopped testing as I've done it twice a week since January. Will restart again September, along with my secondary school aged son. I also have never had the App so won't be pinged, don't fancy isolating on my free time - school time maybe ;)

Moneytootight78 · 31/07/2021 15:11

I think people have in a lot
Of cases a lot of my neighbours seem to have coughs similar to my families which are Covid coughs

bumbleymummy · 31/07/2021 15:14

Probably. Just as it should be really. We don’t test for all the other viruses we live with.

riveted1 · 31/07/2021 15:21

@bumbleymummy

Probably. Just as it should be really. We don’t test for all the other viruses we live with.
No other virus (in recent history) has caused a global pandemic and killed 4 million people whilst leaving millions more with long term complications

Not sure why the attempt to downplay the impact of coronavirus?

bumbleymummy · 31/07/2021 15:31

I’m not downplaying it. Other viruses have killed millions of people over time. We vaccinate against the most deadly ones, or vaccinate the most at risk groups, and then just carry on with our lives without testing to see if we might be carrying any of them asymptomatically.

riveted1 · 31/07/2021 15:33

@bumbleymummy

I’m not downplaying it. Other viruses have killed millions of people over time. We vaccinate against the most deadly ones, or vaccinate the most at risk groups, and then just carry on with our lives without testing to see if we might be carrying any of them asymptomatically.
Yes other pathogens have killed millions over time, but no other virus (in recent history) has caused a global pandemic and killed 4 million people whilst leaving millions more with long term complications in the space of 18 months.

It is not comparable to whatever virus you are thinking of, and yes, it is downplaying the impact of coronavirus to suggest otherwise.