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

@RoyalFamilyFan do you think your friend might be able to pick some up at their next appointment?

@toomuchlaundry I have no idea. I doubt the hospital will be handing them out.
I suspect I am going to have to stay up till early hours to order online - it is what one pharmacist advised.

@MaybeHeIsMyCat yes it is shit. People I know are testing before seeing my friend. It is such a simple thing to help keep someone safe.

Our local supermarket have a van that comes to the car park a couple of times a week and hands out LFTs, is there anything similar near you? Could you do a shout out on Facebook to ask if anyone local has a spare test so you can do the hospital trip?

Boots pharmacist told me they can't even get enough for their staff and have people isolating at home as close contacts because they can't test every day.

In all seriousness they should do a test amnesty for people that don't do them and can give them back - I've got 2 and a half boxes that have come home from school which I doubt will be used.

And there is an element of self responsibility too. If you know you’re vulnerable, you need to make your own assessment about risks.

Love this. Anyone vulnerable should stop being part of a community. Kids should be handed over to others maybe?
I wish ppl would see how farcical and stupid this argument is.

@TheSunIsStillShining

And there is an element of self responsibility too. If you know you’re vulnerable, you need to make your own assessment about risks.

Love this. Anyone vulnerable should stop being part of a community. Kids should be handed over to others maybe?
I wish ppl would see how farcical and stupid this argument is.

Totally agree, this attitude is the pits. Both stupid (because it won't work) and hideous (expecting those who are vulnerable to step out of society and lose opportunities).

@TheSunIsStillShining

And there is an element of self responsibility too. If you know you’re vulnerable, you need to make your own assessment about risks.

Love this. Anyone vulnerable should stop being part of a community. Kids should be handed over to others maybe?
I wish ppl would see how farcical and stupid this argument is.

Is there anything about risk assessment that means you have to stay apart?

It is one approach, I guess.

But equally, one could simply find an FFP2 or FFP3 mask, and wear it routinely when in high risk spaces.

Or even just ask visitors to test if they can.

I gave all my tests away.

@chaosrabbitland

praise be to the goods , could this mean that when i go to work in the pharmacy /everyday beauty store im in , i wont be constanly getting bloody moaned at , asked inane questions , such as when are they coming in , and where else has got them , all in a whingey voice and pained expression , and oh my god , the fucking arse they get when they havent got the code and we arent supposed to be giving them without the code , . but some of them moan so much we have to give them one without anyway .

cant wait for this to start taking effect

Yes it will be well worth the extra deaths for you not to be moaned at at work

*Love this. Anyone vulnerable should stop being part of a community. Kids should be handed over to others maybe?
I wish ppl would see how farcical and stupid this argument is."

Nope but buy same token my bus and shops are full of oaps regularly at peak times at weekends, when they have all week but decide Saturday had to be the day they do shopping.
Plenty of vulnerable through own stupidity don't protect theirselves.

Just because in you are in your sixties does not automatically mean you are vulnerable to covid.

@puppetear
You do realise that mask effectiveness could be quite low in eg school, where only that 1 kid wears it and everyone else doesn't give a fuck? Same goes for workplace, commute, travel...
But hey, let i be every man for themselves. What a compassionate society.

[quote TheSunIsStillShining]@puppetear
You do realise that mask effectiveness could be quite low in eg school, where only that 1 kid wears it and everyone else doesn't give a fuck? Same goes for workplace, commute, travel...
But hey, let i be every man for themselves. What a compassionate society.[/quote]
Sorry. I wasn't bating. Although I see why you might think that.

FFP2s are really very good, and FFP3s very good indeed. And unlike surgical masks, it is the wearer that gets the benefit. (Well, both do, but point is the benefit is so much greater that it doesn't matter much if the other party does not.)

You are right in the case of surgical masks though — wearing one to protect yourself is silly.

Whilst it isn't the flu, a bad flu season can kill 50,000 in this country. And is dangerous to the same people which covid is.

@Againstmachine do you mean flu and pneumonia?

O and re Primary School family members testing is really the only defence they have bar opening windows so it so important as the children don't test routinely, masks aren't worn and there is no social distancing.

Flu does not kill that amount. 17,000 in a very bad year, 600 in a good year.

Excess deaths from a few years ago which are thought to be flu and it happens regularly, in past 20 years it has been high.

www.bmj.com/content/361/bmj.k2795/rr-6

@RoyalFamilyFan exactly. I think the pp may have been confusing excess winter deaths perhaps.

@Againstmachine did you read what you shared?

"Through the USISS mandatory scheme, a total of 3,454 ICU/HDU admissions of
confirmed influenza were reported across the UK from week 40 2017 to week 15 2018,
including 372 deaths, based on combined data from England, Scotland and Northern
Ireland. In England, the total number of influenza confirmed admissions to ICU/HDU
was 3,175 (rate of 0.22 per 100, 000 population) and 320 deaths during the same
period...

Againstmachine did you read what you shared

Yes the point is you are always going to get excess deaths.

@Northsoutheastwest76

*"Through the USISS mandatory scheme, a total of 3,454 ICU/HDU admissions of confirmed influenza were reported across the UK from week 40 2017 to week 15 2018, including 372 deaths, based on combined data from England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. In England, the total number of influenza confirmed admissions to ICU/HDU was 3,175 (rate of 0.22 per 100, 000 population) and 320 deaths during the same period...*

@RoyalFamilyFan

Has it occurred to anyone that, because we don’t test for flu like we do for covid, those excess deaths in previous years may well have been caused directly by flu? Something killed them. Most people don’t just die of old age, it’s usually as a result/combination of illness.

We can't work on what ifs and we can't adopt this fallacy of keeping everyone safe - it is impossible.
I think the above sums up exactly what is wrong about many people's attitudes towards the pandemic response, namely the idea that any measure that is not a perfect solution is not worth bothering with at all. Encouraging people to do LFTs before meeting up with vulnerable friends and family members won't prevent all transmission to vulnerable people, but it will undoubtedly prevent some transmission to vulnerable people. At a time like this when hospitals are already not coping, that's a worthwhile measure.

The idea that any risk reduction measure in relation to Covid is pointless if it isn't perfect is particularly strange given that people don't take the same approach to risk reduction measures in other areas of life, eg I've never heard anyone argue that spending money on pedestrian crossings is a waste of time because it's impossible to prevent all road deaths and too expensive to install a pedestrian crossing on every street.

Yes you always get excess deaths in Winter compared to the same summer period. That is where the 50,000 comes from. But that 50,000 is not flu deaths.