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

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

Hospitals are a problem because they, by definition, have concentrations of very vulnerable people, so whereas Covid may not be a major issue for most hospital staff, that's not necessarily true for patients.

This is probably crazy, but could one solution be to hook everyone in hospital who's particularly vulnerable to Covid up to oxygen, or just filtered "fresh air" through the tubes if they don't have breathing problems. That surely would drastically reduce the risk of them becoming infected,
removing the main issue.

We have damaged the young for the sake of the old and sick and I am not sure that was in the greater good.

What on earth makes you think all vulnerable people are "old and sick"? Most are in work (or trying to be) and pay taxes, just like you.

greentea - current hospitalistions are 1/4 they were last year. last winter 1 in 30 died. now its 1 in 640. Fatality rate last winter was 3%, not 0.15%.

the vaccines work.

now

Crazycatlady some of the vulnerable need to know quickly ,,the new IV treatments should be given soon as possible .For the best chances .

@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".

Absolutely.

And sorry, I meant to say the Education Secretary.

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

then he needs to read his own Governments CV recovery plan, where it clearly states free tests will end....

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

Lol Yes absolutely brilliant idea to get ill people working in Hospital caring for the very sickest in society....

If we didn't have such low numbers of HCP's (pre pandemic) then we would be able to cope so much better, as comparable european countries have managed, yes stretched but not to the extent we are, which is a collapsed NHS.

@plinkplinkfizzer

Crazycatlady some of the vulnerable need to know quickly ,,the new IV treatments should be given soon as possible .For the best chances .

Forgive me but I would have thought- PCR tests will still be available. If they have symptoms they should test using a PCR (most people seem to PCR test for cold symptoms - which is obviously the new "variant" symptoms s - so we can put aside the argument that the government restrict PCR testing to simply the "3 main symptoms") . If they have no symptoms, and only find out they have covid because of a positive LFT, they wouldn't need any additional medical treatment because vaccines will have done their job. Therefore, by its very nature, the LFT is unnecessary

[quote GiveMeNovocain]@chaosrabbitland can't believe the hard time you're getting here. Sadly some members of the public make it very hard to like them especially when you work in the coal front daily. I wonder how many people have work in a shop? I have done. I had to be polite, not actually like people moaning at me. On the day the shop closed and I lost my job I had such a nasty customer they stuck with me for 20 years. The people who serve you are human too and your behaviour has an impact[/quote]
thank you , i honestly think most people who are making comments to me have no clue what working in retail is like , the rudeness and general moaning we put up with sometimes is pretty unbelievable sometimes

im sure most people commenting on here think that us retail staff float about in the store with nothing to do , as in the night the retail fairies have come in and put the large deliveries away onto the shelfs , tidied it up so it all looks neat , when the reality is its us doing it ,as well as stopping to serve on tills , stopping to help customers who need advice on products ,where something is , which is fine , its what im there for ,

from the minute i get in there i dont stop , we are short staffed as are a lot of shops now , iv got so much to do theres not enough hours in the day and so having people moaning away at me because we have run out of lateral flow tests is enough to make me blow my stack
we even had someone complain how ridiculous is was we were out of them as its something we are promoting , eh i mean since when were pharmacys promoting lateral flows , we had to explain noo its a goverment incentive , we just hand them out , im fed up of being asked the same questions over and over , are you still out of them , when are they coming in , where can i get them then and finally what am i supposed to do ? all questions to which i and and everyone else working there dont know !!

obviously what does take the edge of it is the many lovely customers there are and its a pleasure to help .

I work in a school where we are supposed to test twice weekly. I can imagine if people have to pay they won't bother

well of course they are learning as they go

people want it to end

Absolute insanity.
I really hope Nicola thinks so too.

surely marks a clear path this whole thing becoming endemic

Donald - is that you?

You don't understand how a pandemic becomes endemic @Wizzbangfizz.
Or the difference between cause & effect ...

@DillDanding

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.

I kind of agree. The world is likely never going to be "sanitised" enough for it to be completely safe for those who are CEV. Even if we got down to under 1,000 cases each day I imagine some would continue to be calling for restrictions...

We need to think about making reasonable adjustments like we do for those with disabilities, rather than try to reach an unattainable goal that satisfies no one.

Take a theatre... We don't require them to have no steps and to ensure that every seat is accessible, we make adjustments such as lifts and wheelchair areas to provide access. I think we need a similar approach with Covid. What measures can we reasonably take to ensure that those who are CEV can play as full a role in society ad possible, without imposing permanent restrictions on society that have massive impacts on the economy... which ultimately needs to be healthy for the sake of the health of the CEV, and everyone for that matter.

Being a cynic, my first thought was that once people can't get free LFTs, the number of positive cases will start to fall as the number of tests done will fall.

The lying bunch of shysters running the country will be able to declare that we've beaten Covid, despite being the only country in Europe to reach 100k deaths and loads of people waiting for treatment and surgery. At least until the next new variant comes along.

Personally, it gives me a bit of a dilemma. I always do an LFT prior to meeting up with people indoors, because I don't want to unwittingly make them ill. Having had someone in the family catch Covid from someone who was asymptomatic, and then infect several people prior to developing symptoms themself, I'd hate to be the one responsible for making several people so ill that they had to stay in bed for a week. Plus I have a couple of friends and an elderly MIL who are vulnerable.

I don't mind paying for LFTs if they're going to be reasonably cheap, but if they're like £10 or something, I'd have to be more selective about when I use them.

We're mostly WFH, but have to do an LFT before going into the office, so I'm hoping that work may provide some. We may even still be able to get them free, as technically we count as health and social care staff.

Covid vaccines still don't protect everyone with blood cancer.

I've picked that as an example, as it's something I know about, but it applies to many other conditions, and also to people who've had transplants.

It's not a tiny number of people.

Some are old (and still don't deserve to be locked away, despite this), and some are young.

Some are teachers, doctors, nurses, bus drivers, shop workers.

Some have school-aged children.

I'm just going to C&P the two posts which have upset me on this thread, as an example of the sort of comment I'm responding to.

However, I'm not actually responding to those posters. I'm writing this for the lurkers who may be feeling as upset as me at reading some of that sociapathic bullshit.

9:58 9th June DillDanding

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

9:10 9th June Watapalava

‘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.’*

Nicola Sturgeon has said it is "wrong headed"

And @chaosrabbitland I have worked in retail.

Honestly, I think we need to accept resources are finite and need to be well spent. For example, if half the money went into the NHS rather than bloody track and trace, we would be in a much stronger position. Our children are going to be paying for this (in terms of monetary value, loss of their education and environmental impact) for years to come and the money has to be better spent investing in health care, better treatments, targeted vaccine boosters for the CV / ECV. I think LFT have outlived their usefulness.

Yes the government have said more key worker sectors need to test more regularly. Maybe reducing LFT for the general population will make this possible.

I also think that we are being softened up for a change in policy. Always happens, leak something to the media and see what the public has to say about it ....

It will be interesting when they scrap "free" tests what the rules around testing daily for close contacts will be.

Boris it seems is basically trying to do what he can for the economy regardless of the public health risks. Seemingly by getting workers into work because they aren't positive - because they haven't tested.

Especially as pcr is now for symptoms only and they haven't updated the symptoms list since March 2020.

The nhs symptoms list for the home pcr testing kits for the vulnerable list about 20 symptoms.

Bearing in mind that the Omicron variant can infect within 2 days, there’s little point in testing for it. You’ve got it - and quite possibly already spread it - by the time you test positive.

A doctor friend of mine told me Omicron is possibly the best Christmas present we could have got. It accounts for over 97% of cases now and has displaced the far more dangerous Delta so the population will be obtaining immunity from what is basically presenting as a cold.

As I predicted just over a week ago, reducing isolation to 5 days is also being seriously discussed. To have the workforce, who are not even ill sitting at home, makes no sense. From knowing a handful of people in early November who had had covid to, by the end of December, virtually everyone I know having had it, it’s time to move on. Not one of them had anything more than a runny nose and headache.

It’s out there, we are wasting time and resources trying to avoid it now.

Do those with the knowledge-set to determine these things, know that Omicron variant equivalents (i.e. much less deadly and severe) are going to absolutely be the way forward?

I certainly don't think a lot of people would pay to continue using LFTs.

I also think that we are being softened up for a change in policy. Always happens, leak something to the media and see what the public has to say about it

Reported in November. Watch this space…

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10198985/Operation-Rampdown-Codename-revealed-Government-papers-dismantle-key-Covid-measures-year.html

@treeflowercat

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

Hospitals are a problem because they, by definition, have concentrations of very vulnerable people, so whereas Covid may not be a major issue for most hospital staff, that's not necessarily true for patients.

This is probably crazy, but could one solution be to hook everyone in hospital who's particularly vulnerable to Covid up to oxygen, or just filtered "fresh air" through the tubes if they don't have breathing problems. That surely would drastically reduce the risk of them becoming infected,
removing the main issue.

I shouldn’t have come back to this thread but…

I’m guessing hooking every vulnerable patient in every hospital in the country up to an oxygen filter would be considerably more expensive than health care workers taking tests that probably cost pence to make (when taking corporate profits out of the equation)

Maybe you should watch the news reports from India last year where Doctors were on the phone begging for more oxygen supplies for their patients during their second wave.

Honestly, I think we need to accept resources are finite and need to be well spent. For example, if half the money went into the NHS rather than bloody track and trace, we would be in a much stronger position

Except that it wouldn't have gone to the NHS. Ever.