The strategy at schools and nurseries is that parents and other adults around young children should test using lateral flows regularly. Not the children themselves.
The theory is that the vaccines provide something of a 'firewall' and that they simply don't want to get much overspill of infection from those in direct contact with children. For the most part thats actually happened to this point. The biggest transmission points are schools and within a household. The decision to allow people from a covid infected household who test negative to carry on without an isolation period is the flaw in strategy and primarily leading to the overspill because people take a couple of days to catch covid and don't immediately test positive even though they might be infectious - testing isn't helping us on this - if anything its leading to false sense of security. As waning immunity is kicking in, its meaning more older people are now starting to get covid again. Hence something of a panic around boosters.
But there is a key point that infections can only run for so long in children before numbers start to drop off. Half term has provided a firebreak which may distort the picture a bit, but there was some suggestion that case numbers in some areas of the country did peak around mid October before half term. We have to wait to see if thats the case.
We are going to hit a point where testing at this level is unviable to continue for a number of reasons. Cost being a huge one. The cost of lateral flows is estimated to be the equivalent of a penny on income tax, so there will be a big (controversial) decision about reducing their use come January / February in my opinion. We simply cannot be over reliant on them in the medium to long term. I know some people are using them because of over anxiety - i have friends who have admitted using them multiple times a day. Thats also not healthy psychologically.
We also have the news that we've got this new drug which can help reduce hospitalisations which was approved yesterday. So we are going to see an emphasis shift to that for at risk groups I suspect. It will possibly be a cheaper option.
But above all it gets me that its framed as a moral duty of a 4/5 year old to do an invasive distressing invasive medical test because otherwise parents are 'selfish' rather than there being some self reflection about those saying it and how its all about their concerns without thought to the child, and the blame isn't shifted to a government level decision to not invest in salvia tests which would be much better for the interests of the child.
Its easy to stand screeching about how 'anti-testers' are evil without properly engaging about what's going on, thinking about other flaws in strategy, questioning why adults seem to be putting responsibility on very young children, asking about alternative ways to test, think about the science of how unvaccinated groups will be pools of infection but thats time limited, thinking about other solutions and how viable testing is in the medium to long term.
I think a few people need to go have a good hard think about how its not that simple, which unintended consequences and indirect impacts are and how young children lack the ability to understand, rationalise and tolerate certain things precisely because they are young children.
All this demonisation of people 'doing the wrong thing' needs to stop. People need to start listening harder about why they are making those choices. Mistrust of authority or phobias are massively dismissed as selfishness rather than proper engagement being applied to build trust, offer support or offer alternative options. There have been posters who have said as much if you actually talk to them properly and start to use some fucking empathy yourself.
Empathy only seems to be something that other people are obliged to give and I find that really quite telling and revealing.
People who are clinically vulnerable or have a relative who is and are therefore extremely anxious about covid are the only ones allowed to be extremely anxious. They are socially given licence to hit out at others who dont 'comply' without any thought applied as to why others might behave differently or might have serious anxieties of their own.