Stop overusing lateral flow tests!

[musicalfrog]

How many posts on this forum say "ooh I tested twice yesterday", or "ooh I'm waiting for a pcr result but still taking a lateral flow every day"...

Have some fucking thought for the expense to the taxpayer of all these tests, and the poor folk who are struggling to get a supply of tests to keep their loved ones safe while you fritter them away without a second thought.

You DON'T need to take more than one test a day, you DON'T need to keep testing while waiting a pcr result (you should be isolating) and you DON'T need to be testing every day unless you're a close contact.

Over consumption is killing this planet, these are prime examples.

I don't believe there is the capacity for that much testing

Ahh well, if you believe that, let’s just not bother doing it at all, shall we not? Let’s not at least have people who are out and about on public transport doing a test every couple of days just to make sure. No point in trying really, if you don’t think there’s enough.

[quote noturavgmum]@Ovenaffray that’s not the official advisce
though. It states you should test if

1. you will be in a high risk situation that day
2. before you visit someone vulnerable or
3. You have been told you’re a contact but you don’t have to isolate[/quote]

I literally quoted the advice from Northern Ireland earlier in the thread. I took an LFT this morning and by rights - according to the advice - I should take another before going to the crowded supermarket this afternoon.

@noturavgmum the advice is different in each of the countries of the uk. In Northern Ireland the advice is as I quoted it. Happy to link should I need to.

@Moonopoly

Just seen that the guidance has changed for close contacts. It’s no longer PCR but 7 days of lateral flows. Considering there were 100,000+ a day this week that probably explains the lack of lateral flow tests. Not Gillian at No.5 taking them hourly for shits and giggles.

Well yes but logic and thinking is no substitute for an enjoyable burst of righteous ranty posting because your family is so much more speshul and important than others, supplemented by virtue signalling on the plastics.

@BoredZelda yes I don't believe there is the capacity to supply millions of tests every day. I think usage peaked at 7/8m for one week earlier in the year so yes I don't think the gov would have planned for that usage daily.

I don't see a problem with testing twice a week but that's not what I was discussing. The point is the OP was annoyed at others for using the tests not as they are advised but the guidance says they are not necessary for public transport, I didn't write it!

The amount of plastic used in some of them is ridiculous. All it is is a litmus paper strip thingy
I've seen some that look better, like a cardboard square?

Ahh well, if you believe that, let’s just not bother doing it at all, shall we not?

Where on earth has critical thinking gone?

I can simultaneously not believe the gov has forecasted for millions of tests to be used each day but still believe that testing has a place.

@Ovenaffray this is the advice off government website. It makes sense when there are shortages to use tests before going out if you know you’ve been in contact with someone with covid no? In an ideal world there would be a supply of tests that meant we could all test every time we left the house

This is the advice from the ni gov website

Rapid lateral flow testing if you have no symptoms

It is strongly recommended that everyone takes regular rapid lateral flow tests (twice weekly), particularly if:

you’re planning to mix with other people
you can’t get the vaccine due to your age or a health condition
Lateral flow tests are free and provide a result within 30 minutes at home.

Under the latest guidance, anyone over the age of 11, who does not have symptoms, should take a rapid COVID-19 test before:

meeting friends and family
attending an event or social gathering
spending time in a crowd or a busy public place
visiting someone who is elderly or more vulnerable
travelling into Northern Ireland from England, Scotland, Wales or the Republic of Ireland (the Common Travel Area)

www.nidirect.gov.uk/articles/coronavirus-covid-19-testing#toc-3

I was asked to do an LFT this am before going to the doc. So I did.

I’m going shopping for groceries (busy public place) and according to that advice I should do another before I go.

Couldn't agree more OP. What a pointless waste of plastic for most people. They should be saved for those who are CEV and their close contacts. If you want to protect the NHS we need to stop wasting money on healthy symptomless people.

@Ovenaffray interesting, are there shortages in NI like there are in England? Wonder if our advice has been updated with that in mind? Wasn’t trying to correct you just copied info I find when searching when do I need to do LF test

@snapsieplopp

I have had 3 different test kits in my time, I wonder what the gov does with the old ones when they change

Work through them until they're gone. DH's work (a uni) was still supplying the old style until 2 weeks before Christmas... then went on to flowflex 3 months after the pharmacy and online ones did.

I agree OP. Someone who I saw last night said how him and his wife did a lateral flow xmas morning, drove to someones house (3 hour drive) and stopped at a lay by to so another lateral flow 'just in case' before going in! They had literally done one that morning. They had also been for a PCR 2 days before just to make sure they didnt have covid. They had no symptoms! It's a waste of a PCR appointment.

I have a friend who does one every time she leaves the house and she also gets a PCR fairly regularly (think once a week on average) just in case.

It's totally mad!

@cici22 erm...its a legal requirement to isolate whilst awaiting a PCR result so you definitely shouldn't be going into work and making people sick whilst awaiting one. There was no need to do a lateral flow. If you get a PCR you isolate until the result comes through

[quote PoleFairy]@cici22 erm...its a legal requirement to isolate whilst awaiting a PCR result so you definitely shouldn't be going into work and making people sick whilst awaiting one. There was no need to do a lateral flow. If you get a PCR you isolate until the result comes through[/quote]
I'm very aware... you just didn't understand my post did you. don't need it explaining. I'm not stupid, I isolated. My results came back negative, but I was sick so did a LFT the day after and it was positive. So yeah.... I almost went back into work..... so good job I kept doing LFT really isn't it...

It bears remembering that not all advice is the same across the 4 nations.

I tested positive after receiving a negative LFT. So i did it all right. @PoleFairy just didn't read my post correctly

PCR* I mean

You can order them on the Government sites. As you can the PCR which we had no trouble receiving within 24hours

I have been saying for a long time that needless lft’s are prolonging things. I work in a school and the guidance is that we should do them twice a week. I told the head from the outset that I would not be doing them unless I had been a known contact of a positive case. I did my first lft in September when my DD got up with a sore throat and did lft which was positive. My lft was negative and I was asked to take a PCR by the head before I went back to work. PCR was also negative. I took a further 3 lft’s over the course of DD’s isolation. All negative. After half term I was identified as a close contact of a child in my class who had tested positive. I again did precautionary PCR followed by lft’s every other day. All tests negative. I haven’t done one since. I had COVID Xmas 2020 before lft’s were a thing. No one in my household caught it from me. If I am ill I will stay at home and get a PCR test to check, that’s it. No one routinely tests for other illnesses that can be just as dangerous for the elderly and vulnerable, COVID needs to be treated just the same. Stay at home and test if you are ill otherwise go about your normal day to say routine.

I tested pretty much daily, last week. Ds2 had a cough and a fever and would not let me swab him, so I had to work under the assumption that it was covid. I didn't test every day, just those days I needed to be out eg visit pharmacy, medical appointment, supplies from very small local shop.

People who aren't ill or are asymptomatic shouldn't be testing at all.

@HappydaysArehere

You can order them on the Government sites. As you can the PCR which we had no trouble receiving within 24hours

You can’t, they’ve been unavailable for at least 5 days. Pharmacies have run out, can’t get PCR either

@doublemonkey

People who aren't ill or are asymptomatic shouldn't be testing at all.

lfts are precisely to be used in those cases

@doublemonkey

People who aren't ill or are asymptomatic shouldn't be testing at all.

How do you know you're asymptomatic if you don't test?