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Covid

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Why aren't people pcr testing?

245 replies

Acer82 · 04/10/2021 19:25

Spoken to two friends with dc in my child's year last few days. One child has had a temp, sore throat etc...and they have just been doing lft tests, the other child was off last week with a cold and bad cough and I said did they have a pcr and they said no, we just kept isn't the lfts. My dc from the same year has been off today, woke up with sore throat, achy, cold but no temp/cough/loss of taste/smell. I'm probably thinking ill get him a pcr anyway. I don't understand why people aren't getting the pcr tests especially when they have a cough and temp? Have people just given up on them?

OP posts:
RedToothBrush · 06/10/2021 07:39

It isn't hard.

Human nature is that many people will take the simplest, easier path of least resistance in life. Behavioural scientists will tell you that many people won't do what they are told by authority, especially if it doesn't suit them and makes their life more difficult. Many will actively rebel from authority because they distrust it for some reason. Add in the complication of confusing and contradictory messages from government about lateral flows and how they are now seemingly good enough for international travel and protecting school staff and how you no longer have to isolate as a close contact if you are double vaccinated or under 18 (and how it seems to be no longer mandatory to do a pcr if you are a close contact only 'advised') and you have a problem.

It isn't easy anymore. It is hard. It is hard if you have social and economic pressure to get on with things and ignore PCR testing. If you have your own business or you have a difficult employer or if you have bills piling up, yes it is damn well hard.

People saying its not that hard or accusing people of being selfish are remarkably blinkered and unaware of how the world works and how humans simply often don't have the luxury of doing what they are told. Ironically this is the very thing that has meant humans survive - working together only works to a point - its actually resilience in adversity and ability to adapt that keeps humans going.

Yes it is that hard.

If you want people to PCR test you can't have a fucked up situation like we have now.

W

Covidworries · 06/10/2021 07:58

I would say the situation is in the mess we are because of the people who have their head in the sand and believe that covid didnt exist, is like a cold, has magically disapeared.
They will also be the first to kick off when things get worse. Despite its their behaviour that has caused things to get so bad in the first place.

GoldFrankensteinAndGrrr · 06/10/2021 09:25

@Covidworries

I would say the situation is in the mess we are because of the people who have their head in the sand and believe that covid didnt exist, is like a cold, has magically disapeared. They will also be the first to kick off when things get worse. Despite its their behaviour that has caused things to get so bad in the first place.
My god, when will people stop trotting out this hackneyed nonsense?

Primarily, we're in the mess we are because there's a virus around, doing what viruses do. This one is pretty good at it, too. It's practically impossible to control a virus, particularly one that's so efficient. It's going to spread, whatever we do.

Regarding testing/isolation, we're in the mess we are predominantly because there is no immediate financial support for those required to test/isolate. If people were immediately reimbursed for the wages they lose while they wait for test results, I guarantee you'd see more people testing. Also cast iron protection from fear of job loss for taking time off (sometimes several times a month).

Better still, make LFTs fit for purpose. A definitive, reliable test you can do at home in half an hour would make a huge difference. As would proper financial support if those tests are positive - if the prospect of losing three days' pay is likely to put people off testing, the prospect of ten days' pay lost is going to result in many, many more people deciding not to test.

Stop blaming people and branding them selfish for needing to eat and pay their rent.

WeepySheepy · 06/10/2021 09:32

Yeah they need to make LFTs that people can trust so we can do away with the PCR testing

Legomania · 06/10/2021 09:33

@Covidworries do you work?

Londonwriter · 06/10/2021 10:36

@Covidworries

You can not possibly know that your cough isnt covid, you are choosing to ignore the requirement to test. Do you routinly choose to ignore things like the requirement to wear seatbelts?

In the spring testing prob wint be a requirement but that isnt relevent to now when IT IS A requirement.

Ive not lost the plot im annoyed with people thinking the rules dont apply to them . Do you think CEV families dont have money worries.

Not testing and ignoring symptoms(Yes there are more symptoms than the 3 required to test but there are 3 that require testing and people cant even follow that. )

Is going to result in cases rising quicker than NHS can cope with.

This means more opperations will be cancelled, this means more people wont get cancer diagnosis quick enough. This means that more people will die or become very ill both of covid and other illness that could be treated in normal times.

Someone i know well is currently ill in hospital the staff are over run, they could note update the next of kin for over 24 hrs because they dont have time. This is the start of october covid cases are growing, postponed treatments are becoming life threatening and winter illness are also going to happen. You can pretend we can get back to normal but you are only fooling yourself....

Yes the government are responsible but what can they do when people wont even comply with the tiny regulations in place now.

@Covidworries You do know that the government requirements are to test a ‘new, continuous’ cough or ‘3 or more episodes of coughing in 24 hours’, right?

Likewise, it’s to test a ‘high’ fever.

The extra words are important. As other posters have put, further up, COVID (can be) a REALLY nasty disease - even if you’re double vaccinated.

Thus, adults who are coughing with COVID are ‘continuously’ coughing due to lung inflammation. They’re not going ‘cough cough’ once to clear their throat. They’re not having a short bout of coughing first thing in a morning. They’re, in some cases, unable to sleep and vomiting with the severity of their cough. Hence the ‘continuous’ and ‘episodes’ bit of the description.

Moreover, as COVID is worse in adults, many young children are asymptomatic carriers. The ones who do have symptoms often have high fever or diarrhoea - not coughing.

There’s also context. If everyone in a household, including multiple CV adults, have the common cold, and a toddler in the house is snotty and coughing, and no one in the household is a known close contact of a COVID case - what is the likelihood that toddler has COVID?

The idea that you would PCR test that toddler is absurd. In fact, it’s worse than that. PCR tests need to be done by qualified lab professionals and there is a maximum number you can complete in a day. Thus, every time you PCR test a toddler or small child who very obviously doesn’t have COVID, you are slowing down the testing of someone who does have COVID.

If you want to stop COVID spreading through schools, you need a government who doesn’t send kids into schools when everyone in their household has tested positive for COVID. Needless to say, if the adults in our house have COVID, I’m not sending my older son into school - regardless of what the government says.

Covidworries · 06/10/2021 10:55

@Legomania

Yes do you?

Legomania · 06/10/2021 12:22

@Covidworries yup

Then surely you can see the problem facing people in insecure/poorly paid jobs or those who can't work from home?

Fordian · 06/10/2021 14:16

Well, I haven't experienced a single Covid symptom in 18 months.

That's why I haven't taken a a PCR test.

MGMidget · 06/10/2021 14:42

LFTs are unregulated/unmonitored so people can say what they like to fob you off and appear like they care or are vaguely trying to follow the rules in a misguided sort of way. PCR tests, on the other hand, are done through official sources with the result on record and are more likely than LFTs to pick up covid anyway. So if you didnt want to isolate (and didnt care about the risks to other people) you’d avoid doing one if you possibly could. Can easily fob you off by saying they are doing LFTs.

PCRs are the only form of testing suitable for those with symptoms. I think a problem though is what counts as symptoms because the govt website lists the three main symptoms not the extra symptoms that have subsequently been associated with covid. Presumably test centres would be overrun if they gave the full list!

RedToothBrush · 06/10/2021 15:56

PCRs are the only form of testing suitable for those with symptoms. I think a problem though is what counts as symptoms because the govt website lists the three main symptoms not the extra symptoms that have subsequently been associated with covid. Presumably test centres would be overrun if they gave the full list!

We have one group of people who are going by the detail of the guidelines saying not only must it be a fever but a high fever or not just a cough but a continious one

And on the other hand we have people saying we should all have PCRs even if they don't quite have any of the three symptoms (eg they just have a runny nose).

Someone is always going to complain about the rules being too strict / not strict enough as a result.

Hulahula86 · 06/10/2021 17:51

I can see why people arnt I had to take my 4 year old for one yesterday it was awful it was at a walk in so they watch you! She went crazy and was running round screaming (child with a cold meant snot flying everywhere) the men their were quite rude to me because of her behaviour but she was terrified having 2 strange men watching us and telling her she must not touch anything!! So we were sent home with a home test that was just as awful but managed to do one nostril so have sent that off but means more time off waiting for the result! I’ve spoken to other parents and wish I didn’t bother as they’ve sent their kids in with a cough and none have been sent home yet so I won’t bother keeping her off and testing next time! I’ve now been wfh all week and really could have done with been in work as lots going on and my poor girl is so bored and doesn’t get why she can’t go to school even though she feels fine

Hulahula86 · 06/10/2021 18:33

My policy is the same and I work for the NHS! Luckily I can work from home but only if I can get a laptop this time I’ve been lucky and got one but 2 weeks ago when my 2 year old was coughing I couldn’t get one so had to take unpaid leave!

lollipoprainbow · 07/10/2021 07:44

@GoldFrankensteinAndGrrr well said

theemperorhasnoclothes · 07/10/2021 09:34

I don't understand why people aren't doing PCRs. The lateral flow tests we use are so inaccurate they were banned in the USA by the CDC.

I don't think people realise that their ability to access appropriate care will depend on whether they've had a PCR or not either. Both in the short term (if you do need hospital, do you really want to have to wait for your covid result?) and in the long term, if they get long covid. It's important to know whether it's covid or not for treatment purposes.

I have a nurse friend who got about 5 negative lfts and a positive PCR. She definitely wasn't doing the swabs wrong.

Lockdownbear · 07/10/2021 11:09

I don't understand why people aren't doing PCRs

Very simple, money, job security and time.

People can't afford time off work "just in case".
Kids have missed months of proper school parents don't want them missing more. Little kids have perma-colds nobody wants kids missing a day off school every week "just in case" and that's before you take into account time off work etc.

lockdownmadnessdotcom · 07/10/2021 12:10

@Fordian

Well, I haven't experienced a single Covid symptom in 18 months.

That's why I haven't taken a a PCR test.

Same here.
lockdownmadnessdotcom · 07/10/2021 12:12

@Covidworries

So 1 doctor available who should they treat if your child breaks their leg or my child is having breathing difficulties.
Different doctors, different disciplines, surely.
Talkwhilstyouwalk · 05/11/2021 08:40

I just think people are fed up and have stopped caring. Doing an LFT is a token effort.

Bagelsandbrie · 05/11/2021 08:43

@Talkwhilstyouwalk

I just think people are fed up and have stopped caring. Doing an LFT is a token effort.
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