Is testing being phased out now by stealth ?

[Twinklingstarface]

Is the Gvt easing us out of this pandemic by testing less so positive case numbers appear to have dropped in a few weeks? I’m sure with the lack of tests employees and pupils will still need to attend work rather than assuming a positive result in absence of a test. All chemists here are out of stock so is this the beginning of the end of asymptomatic isolations?

@Boosterquery

viruses generally don't mutate to become more deadly- it's not in their best interests to kill their hosts Not this nonsense again! It's not in the virus's interests to kill the host before the host has had time to pass on the virus to othere. Provided there is a long enough incubation while the host is infectious, but not showing obvious symptoms, whether the virus kills the host is a neutral factor as far as the success of the virus is concerned. Have you not heard of the AIDS virus? HIV infection had almost a 100% fatality rate before treatments were developed. Didn't stop the virus spreading all over the world!

It's not nonsense- generally, viruses don't mutate to become more deadly. They just don't because it's not advantageous and therefore the mutation is not selected for. Take your HIV example- if a mutation of HIV meant that instead of taking years to cause AIDS and kill its host, it took days, would that mutation become the prevalent form? No, because it's not in the best interests of the virus to do that- the original form would reproduce more effectively. Generally, viral mutations are not something for us to fear.

www.nature.com/articles/s41564-020-0690-4

Stuff like this always makes me wonder WHAT is the point of a virus, why does it want to do this? What is its purpose in the world?

Same as the purpose of every other living thing- to reproduce successfully.

By 'covid-obsessed' do you mean doctors, nurses, paramedics etc? The ones who are calling for measures?

Oh, they're all calling for measures, are they? Nah.

But no, I didn't exclusively mean those groups of people, what an odd thing for you to assume.

@RoyalFamilyFan

Also analysis of pcrs allows labs to pick up new variants. Without that we wont have any idea of there is a new variant until it has already spread widely.

Yes you would have no info until hopsitalisations were already rising, and would have no idea of what the ratio of positive cases to hopistalisations was, which would cause lots of problems for planning.

@ThirdElephant

Stuff like this always makes me wonder WHAT is the point of a virus, why does it want to do this? What is its purpose in the world?

Same as the purpose of every other living thing- to reproduce successfully.

Thank you! That was a genuine question, believe it or not.

@HailAdrian

By 'covid-obsessed' do you mean doctors, nurses, paramedics etc? The ones who are calling for measures?

Oh, they're all calling for measures, are they? Nah.

But no, I didn't exclusively mean those groups of people, what an odd thing for you to assume.

A lot of them are indeed calling for measures.

It seems the more people have first-hand experience of the covid situation, the more likely they are to think measures are needed.

We dont pay for other medical tests.

We pay for travel vaccines privately
We pay for some dental treatment
We pay for emergency prescriptions

We pay for things that used to be free - over the counter medications like conjunctivitis drops used to be on prescription

We pay more now than we ever did.

That said - if your employer wants you to undergo a medical - they pay
If they want you to travel and you need x y x paperwork or vaccines they pay

globalnews.ca/news/8480752/ontario-covid-pcr-testing-isolation-reduced-5-days/

Info on changes to pcr testing eligibility in Ontario Canada

Yes, they will probably change the rules just as I come out of my 10 day isolation during my only week of for the next 6 months.

@BluebellsGreenbells

We dont pay for other medical tests.

We pay for travel vaccines privately
We pay for some dental treatment
We pay for emergency prescriptions

We pay for things that used to be free - over the counter medications like conjunctivitis drops used to be on prescription

We pay more now than we ever did.

That said - if your employer wants you to undergo a medical - they pay
If they want you to travel and you need x y x paperwork or vaccines they pay

Lots of travel vaccines are free. I have had them. Only those for very exotic places are not. Yes we pay for dental treatment. I have had emergency prescriptions and never paid for them. Over counter drugs can be prescribed by GP. People can buy them if they want though.

But whether I’m right or not, the scientists’ job is to be uber cautious. They don’t have to think about the economy, implications of constant interruptions to children’s education, the mental health crisis resulting from lockdowns, cancelled operations, missed cancer diagnosis’ - I could go on. The government and the public do have to worry about and face all of these problems head on.

More operations are cancelled and more cancer diagnoses are missed when covid is out of control and clogging up hospitals! This is basic! You don't help operations and cancer care by stopping general testing - at least when we're tracking it we know how much is out there, where it is, and can adjust precautions appropriately to keep some kind of lid on it.

Hopefully at some point we will be able to be more sure that we don't need to care any more where covid is, but we're not there yet. We don't even know for certain yet what's going to happen with omicron and hospital care.

If you genuinely cared about cancer diagnosis and care, you would take opportunities to make it less likely you'll spread covid - not just ignore it and pretend it's not there any more so you can feel like life is normal again.

pp

We do 3 x france and double spain tests! look at tests per million population. Our testing is ridiculous!

www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries

Also data shows very well Royalfamily that most hospitalisatos are under 50

@Cissyandflora

I think this could well be true. And it’s made all the easier because- as we see from this thread alone- people see not knowing as a good thing.

Personally I don’t think we have enough data yet to fully see the picture. I’m all for continuing testing. I know people are fed up with it but covid caused many problems with the body. Some are not fully understood.

I agree - completely waiting for data, which is sensible.

Lack of tests is surely just a supply/demand issue.

@WhoWants2Know

I've heard that theory voiced. But I'm more inclined to believe it's a chronic lack of preparedness on the part of the government.

I also think it's just part of the general fuck up but will have the effect of phasing out tests or at least reducing the volume during this Omicron peak.

I really do hope that they are starting to phase out much of this ridiculous and obsessive over-testing.

Not sure what those who are obsessed with the Covid statistics will do then. They'll have to find something else to fuss about.

No, I think the government hadn’t counted on a highly contagious variant popping up and weren’t prepared. I think if we get through January and February without crazy hospitalisations and deaths testing will be phased out late spring, possibly brought back in the late autumn?
Who knows, I don’t think the government know.

As the people who are 'obsessed' with the stats are the epidemiologists and health planners, then giving them a less full picture of what is going on is simply going to leave us unprepared and more likely to need drastic measures in future (for there will be no chance of flattening/spreading peaks). It'll bust healthcare.

As will trying to pretend that 'it's only a cold'

OK, the nutters on the hard right end of the Tory party stand for that (read The Telegraph if you want to see what I mean) but no one else - majority of Tories inc Boris and all of Labour. And all of EU - you do realise they all publish and submit to the centre? And just about every other country.

Now, when the nigh on the whole world is doing something, might there be a good reason for it? After all, when earlier in the pandemic Merkel was talking about fears that German healthcare would be at risk, was that about dealing with an overwhelming pandemic? Or just scaremongering and controlling?

I read the govt are going to move towards telling people just to go on LFT results and not bother with a PCR. Apart from nhs staff and some other key workers. Got the impression this will be a permanent thing not just due to shortages.

@CovidCorvid

I read the govt are going to move towards telling people just to go on LFT results and not bother with a PCR. Apart from nhs staff and some other key workers. Got the impression this will be a permanent thing not just due to shortages.

Where did you see this?

so we test (per million population):

4 x germany
2 x france
3 x spain

www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries

and that's without all the LFT which don't get registered - of which we do millions more than the EU who pay for them. It really is feeding anxiety.

@CovidCorvid

I read the govt are going to move towards telling people just to go on LFT results and not bother with a PCR. Apart from nhs staff and some other key workers. Got the impression this will be a permanent thing not just due to shortages.

That means no test results will be sequenced, so if a new worrying variant emerges in Britain we won't know until the hospitalisations and deaths start soaring.

Isle of Man are doing LFT only

Numbers recorded locally but non on worldometer.

Something like 4 PCR positives and 150 LFT positives recorded over Christmas

UK seem to follow IOM strategies

Fuckin hope so.

@trollopolis Well as countries like France and Spain are doing significantly less testing than the UK we should also be reducing it, seeing as you place such credence on what "the rest of the world is doing"

Does anyone know why other countries aren’t testing as much as us? Is it coz there’s less virus or is it because there are different rules?