So happy tests are to be axed

[Wizzbangfizz]

So according to reports they are going to stop handing out LFT and will be stopping mass testing - this is excellent news for both the tax payer and the environment and surely marks a clear path this whole thing becoming endemic

Yes, such wonderful news, so now people who are positive won't know that they are and will go around infecting more people. Rejoice indeed

@Watapalava

Lucky

Testing on a lft does not lead to pcr anymore. Sympstomatic people shouldn't be using lft so in fact noone using an lft should ever need a pcr.

Those with symptoms will still be using pcrs and will be sequenced.

The advice on symptomatic people testing on an LFT changed some time ago.

I've already seen posts on here stating that someone intends to do that.

People post all sorts of stuff but it takes some effort so we’ll see if it’s an issue. Or just easy to say online.

If I wanted to buy one I’d just buy it through usual channel not a random chancer.

All the lft tells me is whether I have covid or not. Maybe we should develop tests for asymptomatic flu, norovirus and the common cold. We're treble vaccinated for covid. Surely it's time to eliminate all remaining disease

@Watapalava

Thank god!

Im sick of all these people bloody testing and bring in restrictions for a sodding cold. Yes some get more ill but they'd likely get more ill from flu.

CEV are 3/4x vax with a booster - please stop referring to yourselves as 'vulnerable' - you are not anymore - the data bloody shows it!

i bet the % who don't respond to the vax is tiny. It must be as the data again shows it.
Abandoning testing will help support those who are anxious as its not normal. Peoples perception of risk is not normal.

Where is the data showing that CEV are not vulnerable once they have had their booster?

313 people were reported as having died within 28 days of a positive test yesterday - for many people it's still more dangerous than flu.

I've had to test twice a week for work since last April. People have been disciplined for not doing so.
From Monday I've been told I have to test every day at work. Very few of us can actually get LFT tests for home use so this will help.
I assume this will last until the supply runs out.
I work in a food processing factory. Not everyone is jabbed. Not everyone is testing. Two people died of covid last year.
General consensus is we just need to get on with it now.

It's too early to stop testing. People will just be going out spreading it even more - some unknowingly. Stopping testing doesn't mean that people with Covid will be able to go back to work if they are unwell and contagious. That issue will still be there.

Why do they one week keep telling us to test, assume there was a reason they told us to be careful over Christmas and test before we met vulnerable relatives, all secondary school children need to test on return to school, need to test to get out of isolation and suddenly now we don’t need to test.

Exactly. And then closed the distribution centre over Xmas so no one could get any. It doesn't seem to make sense.
Doesnt testing and knowing how many have minor/mild infections , to an extent, ascertain how deadly or severe it is?

They’re not getting rid of them immediately. We’re in the omicron wave currently and it would make sense once we’re out of this wave we can stop testing.
More natural immunity. Omicron infection gives as antibodies against the delta too according to South African research. Science tells us future variants should be even milder.

@WestendVBroadway

Yes, such wonderful news, so now people who are positive won't know that they are and will go around infecting more people. Rejoice indeed

This is happening anyway!

It’s not normal to endlessly test healthy people just in case they might be carrying a mild illness. The very few people for whom it isn’t a mild illness are protected by vaccines and their own choices, and could still get others to take LFTs if they really need to.

@MrsLargeEmbodied

end mass jabs and just live with it is just an opinion from Dr Clive Dix, does not mean it will happen

The Health Secretary has denied this morning that free tests are being axed.

@Infracat

Yeah thats really great for the vulnerable. Since when did the world become so selfish. Its depressing and very sad.

With vaccinations, anti-virals and a less virulent Omicron strain, the infection fatality rate is now more similar to the flu, so measures need to be proportionate to the risks or they become counter-productive.

Assuming another troublesome variant doesn't present in the next few months, at its current pace, Omicron should have swept through by February, and we should be back down to low infection numbers after a long period of high levels of infection since last summer.... At that point, I'm thinking we need to treat it as endemic.

I think tests should still be in place to protect the vulnerable in various settings, but that would be a severely immune-suppressed cancer patient rather than a 70 year in decent health.

@LilyPond2

Not sure why everyone is so delighted at the abandonment of free testing. Even with testing we currently have a situation where hospitals are so short staffed that the government has had to call in the army to help, and people are being told to take heart attack and stroke patients to hospital in their own cars because there aren't ambulances available. If there hadn't been tests available, the Omicron variant would have spread even more rapidly through the population.

Hospitals are only short staffed because they’re testing. No tests, more staff in.

The Health Secretary has denied this morning that free tests are being axed.

It stinks of more kite flying and policy being shaped by public opinion.

Leading from behind as ever.

Its delightful to read so many posters are happy with the approach since last year which largely throws the vulnerable to the wind. Vulnerable people are now expected to take their chances and if they get seriously ill or die - well it saves the NHS some money doesn't it?

Vaccines do not work on all vulnerable people, the idiots who assume its a panacea for all are presumably the same people who are happy to let them die and "decrease the surplus population".

@sidesplittinglol

It's too early to stop testing. People will just be going out spreading it even more - some unknowingly. Stopping testing doesn't mean that people with Covid will be able to go back to work if they are unwell and contagious. That issue will still be there.

True, but how many days of Covid absence are because people are too unwell to work. When you take into account everyone who's asymptomatic, probably 10-20%. Of all the many people I know who've had Covid, none have been physically unable to work for 10 days. I'm not saying that there are some people for whom it is more debilitating, but on average this thing is relatively mild, even more so with Omicron... it helps that everyone I know who's had it has been fully vaccinated (unless a child).

@DayKay

They’re not getting rid of them immediately. We’re in the omicron wave currently and it would make sense once we’re out of this wave we can stop testing. More natural immunity. Omicron infection gives as antibodies against the delta too according to South African research. Science tells us future variants should be even milder.

Doesn't explain the reinfections.

@Exhausteddog

Why do they one week keep telling us to test, assume there was a reason they told us to be careful over Christmas and test before we met vulnerable relatives, all secondary school children need to test on return to school, need to test to get out of isolation and suddenly now we don’t need to test.

Exactly. And then closed the distribution centre over Xmas so no one could get any. It doesn't seem to make sense.
Doesnt testing and knowing how many have minor/mild infections , to an extent, ascertain how deadly or severe it is?

We can’t live like this forever though. This is the govt weaning us off testing.

To those saying it's just a mild cold, pre-covid there were around 1000 people a day admitted to hospitals for respiratory infections during the worst weeks. At the moment there have been around 2000 a day covid related admissions on top of this. As the CEO of NHS providers recently said in an interview, people don't get admitted to hospital this time of year unless they really need to be.

So you can keep telling yourself it's just a sniffle but the rising hospital and death numbers will say otherwise.

@C8H10N4O2

The Health Secretary has denied this morning that free tests are being axed.

It stinks of more kite flying and policy being shaped by public opinion.

Leading from behind as ever.

Its delightful to read so many posters are happy with the approach since last year which largely throws the vulnerable to the wind. Vulnerable people are now expected to take their chances and if they get seriously ill or die - well it saves the NHS some money doesn't it?

Vaccines do not work on all vulnerable people, the idiots who assume its a panacea for all are presumably the same people who are happy to let them die and "decrease the surplus population".

He's the Education Minister not the Health. Secretary. Not his decision.

I think it makes sense. 6.4% of the staff where I work are currently isolating due to positive tests. Not one of them has reported being ill - they all have extremely mild cold symptoms. The impact on the service has been huge.

We need to separate the masses from the clinically vulnerable now and treat them differently.

@greentea5

Exactly.

I am totally opposed to charging for LFTs. It's interesting the government haven't even floated the option of letting CV and CEV people have continued access to free tests for their contacts.

The expectation seems to be that people more vulnerable to covid become second class citizens and lock themselves down while those not at risk carry on like its 2019. Not sure what CV and CEV people in work are expected to do.

It's disgraceful, and we need a pushback against this.

What would be the point of only CV or ECV people testing though? Surely once those people have got covid (having found out on their LFT) it's too late? Surely the purpose of LFT was to ensure that it was not passed onto CV or ECV people by asymptomatic family / friends / key workers etc?

Nordica - 1/3 of those admitted are positive but not admitted for covid

it is what I have wanted since March 2020 - living with it. 600,000 die a year in the UK and a good few of those are old people who catch flu - what my doctor father used to call the Old person's friend (because it is quite a nice way to go and we all have to die of something). I wanted us to live with Covid from March 2020. I accept most people do not agree but we are now where I wanted us to be 2 years ago and I am not very happy to be paying much higher taxes (as most people in the UK will have to do) for something that I did not support in the first place. We have damaged the young for the sake of the old and sick and I am not sure that was in the greater good.

I can’t get upset about the waste they produce. One box of mushrooms from the supermarket creates far more waste. Unless you but nothing from the supermarket that is in non recyclable plastic it’s just irrelevant. Most of the packaging is paper and cardboard. Also one case of covid is going to lead to far more disposable gloves and masks being used so using LFTs is probably actually reducing waste.

He's the Education Minister not the Health. Secretary. Not his decision

I hadn't commented on his ministry. He is simply a cabinet minister on the rota for public rounds and represents the government.

Not sure how that is relevant to this government's habit of floating ideas in the press rather than discussing in Parliament and shifting ground based on opinion polls.