To think rates are going down because people are choosing not to have PCRs?

[Glassery]

Two of my friendship group have this weekend told me that they have symptoms, have got a positive lateral flow, but have decided not to go for a PCR test as a positive result means they would have to isolate over Christmas.

Instead they are going to carry on with their lives as normal for the next few days ‘because it would be a shame to have to make the children stay home’ with them.

Personally I think it’s a disgrace but anyway…

AIBU to think the drop in rates over the past few days is not because Covid cases are falling but instead because selfish people don’t want to isolate until 28th Dec?

Yes I think you're right, I haven't seen the numbers for the last few days but definitely think people will avoid it testing, we've had a massive outbreak in our school so we were all asked to go for PCR tests last week and some people refused because they knew they'd have to isolate, my son and daughter got tested and one of them came back positive, no symptoms at all, so gave everyone in the family a rapid test and my older son has it too.... was very disappointed at first but sucked it up and realised it's not the end of the world, all plans cancelled but we'll just have a different type of Christmas this year. I don't usually judge but it did make me look at some of the parents who wouldn't test differently.

@BobbyeinArkansas

I won’t test. Any excuse for a lack down. When it’s highly unnecessary. The NHS isn’t overwhelmed. Need to just get on with life.

I was reading that so many ambulance crews are testing positive, that there are fewer ambulances than usual. My elderly neighbour fell at 6am, the ambulance arrived at 3pm - no doubt because there are so many ambulances out of action. We are all part of society and have a responsibility to act sensibly. I hope that if you have symptoms you will take a test and isolate if it's positive so no other poor chap doesn't have to lie on the floor for 9 flipping hours waiting for an ambulance!

@wantanotherdog to be fair that has been an issue that well predates the pandemic of elderly people left on the floor due to ambulance shortages. As a carer back in 2014 when I was pregnant I spent 8.5 hours sat with an elderly on the floor.

@motherofluvlies you can get postal PCR tests so you don’t have to drive to a test centre.

@Foolsrule
"They have also removed the requirement for a PCR for people with no symptoms living in a household with someone who has tested positive."
No this is correct. At my work, even if household members are positive you're told to take a daily LF and come in.

Cases today 91,743. The lower cases were just the usual lower reporting over the weekend

Dh and I have just been saying I bet cases fall now as people won't be testing in case they have to spend Xmas isolating.

[quote Senmumm2021]@wantanotherdog to be fair that has been an issue that well predates the pandemic of elderly people left on the floor due to ambulance shortages. As a carer back in 2014 when I was pregnant I spent 8.5 hours sat with an elderly on the floor.[/quote]
And of course you are right. But people who refuse to test or isolate for whatever reason are not helping an already stretched NHS. And they are putting at risk nurses, doctors, nursery school workers, teachers, the delivery drivers we all rely on so heavily. As they say, 'No man is an island'. What we do impacts society and eventually it impacts us as individuals.

Jeese that’s terrifying from a mum of a healthy double jabbed teen that ended up in ICU in the summer for a week so serious we nearly lost him due to Covid. I’m astounded!!! He can’t have another jab so we are reliant on people like you staying home if they think they have it. Cheers 😢

Given the huge numbers who have covid and the fact that it is mild in the vast majority of people as is flu I think many younger people in particular just test and don't report it, they might isolate when ill but their actions will be based on how they feel not on the govt options. I personally fully understand the reasons for this behaviour. When someone has the flu they listen to their own body - they don't test but look at how they feel

I know a family who all tested positive on lateral flows but refused to get pcrs as the husband couldn't afford to take time off of work. The wife didn't isolate, held a childrens party and invited herself around to mine multiple times and was firmly told to go away! Although my family have all already had Covid earlier in the year , I wasn't risking my kids suffering through it again!

Absolutely pathetic and beyond depressing that people in the health sector (and elsewhere) are not getting vaccinated. Such an immoral and unethical stance, to choose to potentially risk others’ lives for the sake of what? Idiocy? Misguided thinking? Ignorance about science and relative risk? Maybe they should go somewhere that still has polio and TB and see what happens to the unvaccinated

@FaLaLaLaLaaaar

Yes, my DM has had 2 positive lat flows, but hasn’t bothered getting a PCR. She knows she has Corona and is isolating, so why does she need a PCR?

Probably so the government know the actual numbers infected. You know, make major decisions on budgets, rules, which area need more support.

Least you admit the silliness of it. I get it & we were tempted to be like that. But the risks are high.
I caught it because of a ‘friend’ who doesn’t believe in it. Tells me the jab lowered my immune system 40% & I’ll be 80% down now the booster will take my entire immunity & I may as well inject hiv in me. She won’t wear masks (as not to be governed by the government) she believes the queen is a paedo but also that she’s been dead 15 years. Anyway I didn’t realise until a week ago that she’d had covid & when I said I’d been I’ll & trapped in the house her comment back was ‘you stayed in, I didn’t I went here there & everywhere, it’s good for people to get it & get immune’

Reading on here about how test and trace have been harassing very ill people at home with multiple calls and demands for long conversations puts me right off getting a pcr. If I get covid symptoms I’m just gonna isolate at home for 10 days. I know I’m lucky to be able to do that.

But perhaps others feel the same.

@HelenEas63 that doesn’t sound like much of a friend 😢

@Thirtytimesround

Reading on here about how test and trace have been harassing very ill people at home with multiple calls and demands for long conversations puts me right off getting a pcr. If I get covid symptoms I’m just gonna isolate at home for 10 days. I know I’m lucky to be able to do that.

But perhaps others feel the same.

That is definitely one of the main reasons I wouldn't get one, I also lucky to be able to do that.

@Thirtytimesround

Reading on here about how test and trace have been harassing very ill people at home with multiple calls and demands for long conversations puts me right off getting a pcr. If I get covid symptoms I’m just gonna isolate at home for 10 days. I know I’m lucky to be able to do that.

But perhaps others feel the same.

Yep, they rang my husband daily. And if he didn't answer they just kept ringing and ringing. Same crap every single day - "Are you isolating?" He was so poorly he could barely lift his head, and he was asleep pretty much all the time, so the calls were an absolute nuisance. He's 50 years old - he didn't need reminding every day to isolate - he understood it the first time they told him.

I'm testing on LFTs every other day; if I got a positive there wouldn't be any need for me to get a PCR. I'd isolate, I can WFH if I was feeling well so nothing to prove to work and no isolation grant required.

Why would I go out to a testing centre needlessly?

Reading on here about how test and trace have been harassing very ill people at home with multiple calls and demands for long conversations puts me right off getting a pcr.

Just don’t answer, as long as you’ve logged your positive on the link in the text they send then you’ve done what you need to do. There’s no legal requirement to speak to track and trace. If you’re too ill you’re too ill (also too ill to answer the phone to what you assumed was a cold caller. ) I didn’t speak to anyone.

I think it’s important to log on your medical records that you’ve had COVID.

Yanbu. However it's not just the Xmas get together that puts people off.

My dh's work does regular, drop in LFT tests for employees on site. Everyone on average goes twice a week but it's voluntary - so they call you but you can decline if you're busy etc.

They've been dead for three weeks now, dh says hundreds of people (huge warehouse environment) have just politely declined. Because the employer has unlimited overtime in the 6 weeks before Xmas at double time and a positive result obviously results in you being sent home.

You still get fully paid but lose out on 2 weeks worth of OT which people just won't risk.

Child neglect law
Section 1(1) Children and Young Persons Act 1933

Section 1(2) provides that a person is deemed to have neglected a child or young person in a manner likely to cause injury to his health in either of the following situations:

Where a parent or person legally liable to maintain a child fails to provide adequate food, clothing, medical aid or lodging for the child or having been unable to provide the above failed to take steps to procure it to be provided;

@StarCat2020 are you sure that's meant for this thread?

I tested positive on a LFT yesterday at work, came straight home and did the PCR. Am awaiting results and getting a load of shit from work for doing so. It makes me so angry. 🤯

One of the senior managers at work was stood next to me as he threw his faintly positive LFT in the bin, shhhhh’d me, and said he’d never taken a day off sick in 35 years at work and wasn’t about to start now.