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?

Seen an entire family out today who at least 6 have covid known from their own postings on Facebook.

@AlternativePerspective

I think you just have to ask yourself what would Boris do? well, Boris shagged several other women during his marriage and fathered several children he doesn’t see, and then left his wife for one of said women. I guess that cheating is ok then since Boris did it?

Seriously all the “well x did y so that makes it ok,” statements just show people up as idiots.

Nobody should be being careful because they’re being told to be. People should be taking precautions, testing, being careful because COVID is spreading and the next person you give it to could be vulnerable and might not survive or might end up seriously ill. But hey Boris had a party so that means you take your lead from him, never mind taking some personal responsibility eh?

Boris is our leader in difficult times. He has had to cope with the twin challenges of Brexit, the pandemic and Carrie and through all of it he has been an inspiration to us all, with his straight talking good humour and attention to the important things in his life.

@DramaLlllama

My friend has a very poorly daughter at the moment. Sickness. Temperate of 40. Lethargic, very poorly. She will not call 111 because she knows they will require a PCR. So she is refusing to get medical advice.

She should be reported for neglect.

I agree OP, i certainly won't be getting a PCR test in the run up to xmas. If i feel ill, i'll stay home as i normally would for any illness. best hope you don’t have an undiagnosed health condition then hadn’t you? Because by the time you’re sick enough to want emergency help it could be too late.

5 years ago I found out I’ve had a genetic heart condition since birth. But I didn’t find that out until the flu virus attacked my heart and I developed endocarditis and sepsis. I just thought that I was feeling really ill, and by the time my breathing was bad enough that I rang an ambulance it was very nearly too late. By the time the ambulance arrived I was collapsed on my kitchen floor, and by the time I was rushed to the trauma unit an hour away I was unconscious, in full organ failure and spent several days on life support while they took things hour by hour. Now I have some additional heart problems as a result, have exhausted all possible interventions and so when my heart deteriorates to the degree they’re expecting, my only option of a decent life is a heart transplant. Fortunately I’m not there yet thanks to prior interventions, but I have been categorically told that it will be “when” and not “if”.

There have in fact been several reported cases of people who died from COVID which subsequently turned out to have underlying conditions they had no knowledge of.

But oh no, “It’ll never happen to me.” Until it does.

That is criminal behaviour angry

What law are they breaking?

To be fair there are often lags in reporting figures over weekends, usually it all catches up and Tuesday figures are huge so that may well be the case here

Stupid not to do a pcr after a positive lft imo.

I don't know what you mean by numbers dropping. They are very high?

Some of the responses on here makes me realise why this country is a mess.

We've all had covid. It's taken out the whole December build up to Christmas by the time we all got it. I love the build up to Christmas but we've done what's expected of us and isolated. I couldn't not isolate!

My covid is exactly like a cold so cold symptoms can be covid sometimes.

Jesus Christ!
Some of the anecdotes on this thread!
Just when I'm wondering why we're in such a mess, I read threads like this and remember that it's because of fuckwits like this.

@Cici22

Also OP is mis quoting the data!!! She's only quoting for England not the uk to make it seem like there was a huge drop!! Honestly. 89,0754 isn't exactly a massive drop now is it!!! Talk about using a confirmation bias support the hypothesis 🙄

Did I? I specifically checked I was using UK data, not England. Off to go and look again...

To add Dd has covid and totally asymptomatic and Ds was poorly for one day only. The isolation has been hell as they have sen and don't understand why they have covid and not ill and need to isolate. Grateful they are not ill but it's been hard. But obviously we are doing the right thing like most people are.

[quote Foolsrule]@ShirleyPhallus - that’s as may be, but it’s not what people are being told when contact tracing call…[/quote]
It’s not what I was told, the advice has changed, I read it on gov.uk and test and trace confirmed it to me on Friday as my DD is positive. It was the case in the summer when my other DD tested positive. You are wrong and being rather rude to Foolsrule as well as being the one actually spreading misinformation.

It’s normal weekend data variations due to reporting lags because of staff being off for the weekend.
But many people don’t test that’s been going on for ages. It amazes me that they think it’s okay to ruin other peoples Christmas and potentially lives because they don’t want to miss out. Hight of selfishness.

@Cici22

Also OP is mis quoting the data!!! She's only quoting for England not the uk to make it seem like there was a huge drop!! Honestly. 89,0754 isn't exactly a massive drop now is it!!! Talk about using a confirmation bias support the hypothesis 🙄

Nope, you are incorrect. My stats upthread are UK, not England.

For example, today across the UK, 82,886 (UK) of which 71,702 (England).

So you can stand down

DH had a positive PCR and a positive antigen (lateral flow) test. The CDC (our version of track and trace) were so annoying that he ended up blocking them on his phone. Then I had a positive antigen test a few days later, I followed all the rules and am isolating for the recommended time but I didn't bother going for a PCR so won't appear on the official count.

I suspect there are plenty of people like me, but also plenty of people who have no symptoms and so don't get tested at all. If DH hadn't had a flight booked he wouldn't have done a PCR test and he would never have known that he had Covid as he had no symptoms at all. I wouldn't have known either as I am consistently a bit wheezy/sneezy/coughing and I'm not any more so now that I have Covid.

@AD80

To add Dd has covid and totally asymptomatic and Ds was poorly for one day only. The isolation has been hell as they have sen and don't understand why they have covid and not ill and need to isolate. Grateful they are not ill but it's been hard. But obviously we are doing the right thing like most people are.

Because they will spread it?!

@DramaLlllama

My friend has a very poorly daughter at the moment. Sickness. Temperate of 40. Lethargic, very poorly. She will not call 111 because she knows they will require a PCR. So she is refusing to get medical advice.

I’ve got one of those too but mine also has a positive PCR. It sounds very likely to be covid, poor little girl.

@AD80
Sorry! Just re-read your post. I thought you were saying that you didn’t understand why they needed to isolate.

@jgw1

That is criminal behaviour angry

What law are they breaking?

Refusing to see medical treatment for a child, maybe?! A temperature of 40°c is dangerous.

The thing is
cases don't matter
Except as a mains of predicting healthcare requirements & possibly things like impacts on staff availability in various essential occupations

Hospitalizations matter. Deaths matter.

People mildly ill with Covid really doesnt. I had it last week, it was like many seasonal coughs and colds.

You can see how many people have tested on .gov. Up 48% in my postcode.

I had a positive lft and then didn’t exactly do a pcr. Well I did but it came back void so I just self isolated for the ten days. I was relieved in a way because the whole household had tested positive the week before and track and trace were a bloody nightmare!

Yes, people either aren't doing the LFT tests or not reporting the positive results.

In my son's flat at Uni, one of them tested positive on Tuesday. The others just beggared off home on Wednesday (early as the term didn't finish until Friday). That just left my son and the positive case. My son couldn't come home as we're both CEV and can't risk him coming home if he has it. He tested positive on Thursday (LFT) and has symptoms.

All his flat mates have since said they've either got symptoms or had a positive test at home. They all used public transport to get home, so heaven knows how many people they infected on the way.

They basically didn't test because they didn't want to risk having to isolate and be unable to get home before christmas.

That's just one flat of 10 people. If that's repeated in other places, it's huge numbers of people out there delaying/refusing tests just so that they can continue as normal and not having to risk isolation.

Erm cases do matter. Are people really this hard of thinking?

When people start to behave in certain way en masse, you have to question the structural reason. Not their individual behaviour. You simply cannot expect people to put their lives on hold for a virus that is no more harmful than the flu since 70% are double jabbed, 40% triple jabbed and the latest variant is less lethal. Covid is not only game in town. The hysteria has to end sometime.

My friend has a very poorly daughter at the moment. Sickness. Temperate of 40. Lethargic, very poorly. She will not call 111 because she knows they will require a PCR. So she is refusing to get medical advice.

They won't necessarily.

My baby daughter was poorly in november with bronchiolitis. I knew it was that as she's had it several times. We'd had no exposure to Covid. The hospital neither expected me to have tested her nor tested her themselves. One doctor commented to me that the vast majority of toddlers he had come across with Covid had no distinguishable symptoms, and that fact that DD was quite poorly meant it almost certainly wasn't Covid.