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Original poster

So happy tests are to be axed

598 replies

Wizzbangfizz · 08/01/2022 22:53

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 Smile

OP posts:
ImmediatelyNo · 09/01/2022 03:01

Drakeford is right about people just being abandoned by the government.

musicalfrog · 09/01/2022 03:33

@RoyalFamilyFan

Great I will have to self isolate rather than lateral flow test before seeing my friend undergoing cancer treatment. She will have less visitors as well as many wont be prepared to do this.
Lateral flow tests can be up to three days later than other tests in picking up when you have covid.

If you think these are fail safe re protecting your friend I'm afraid you're wrong. They are better than nothing, granted, but you would need to isolate too to be 100% safe.

DeclareThePenniesOnYourEyes · 09/01/2022 03:39

@WeatherwaxOn

Stupid. How many more have to die needlessly? Why can't we have a government that actually give a shit about people? If we didn't waste so much money on pointless posturing stuff then there'd be plenty to keep people safe.

Seems to me that unless something is likely to make a millionaire richer then the rest of us are expendable.

Hear hear @WeatherwaxOn! Two years in and they’re still pulling mad, populist shit like this. As a PP said, how the fuck is this “endemic” yet? It’s too unpredictable and we don’t bloody understand it enough for it to be endemic!
Dishhh · 09/01/2022 03:50

@RoyalFamilyFan

Australia has so few cases that tests are really not an issue. In the UK we have sky high cases. This is simply a way of massaging the numbers.

Not really so, unfortunately. And LFTs are an issue, as I outlined, as they are now being used as the primary indicator of the amount of infections in the community, but they are incredibly difficult to source. Plus most people have to buy them.

pengu · 09/01/2022 04:04

@RoyalFamilyFan

Great I will have to self isolate rather than lateral flow test before seeing my friend undergoing cancer treatment. She will have less visitors as well as many wont be prepared to do this.
Buy your own
TheKeatingFive · 09/01/2022 04:37

I'm finding this thread quite the eye opener. They were never free where I am (ROI).

Youngstreet · 09/01/2022 04:51

@TheKeatingFive. not free in France either, €5.20 for one boxed test at our pharmacy.
Having seen how my family in UK use them at such high rates for every social encounter I’m not surprised at the billions spent.
I’ve never yet used an lft as a self test.
I’ve only ever done fit to fly.
And day 2 pcr.
I do live in the middle of nowhere though.

EveryFlightBeginsWithAFall · 09/01/2022 04:54

I managed to get hold of 2 boxes last week . You have to keep going online though and checking. It's mainly early morning they are available

echt · 09/01/2022 05:51

@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 Smile
The virus and its prevalence (for which evidence is needed) determines whether it is endemic, not personal attitudes towards it.

Still, fewer test, less evidence.

lborgia · 09/01/2022 05:55

Please do NOT hold Australia as a bloody exemplar of how to get it done - it’s a bloody shitshow.

I was actually on here to say that I think the UK government got this idea from the Oz PM, because he’s just this last week been saying that they won’t pay for testing, because “everything can’t be free”, as if he’s a spiteful parent. We’re not asking for “everything”, just the life saving stuff. It also highlights the inequity of our ridiculous public/private hybrid health system, which is even more 2-tier than ever before.

Truly makes me want to hurt someone, so angry.

When the plan became known, there was uproar, so they came up with the idea that they would make LFTs a reduced cost to those on benefits. Which is all very well, but still means those that do the poverty-line jobs, use the buses, need to test all the time, are paying more than those in managerial jobs who can work from home, and have more disposable income.

At the moment, the cheapest LFT I can find, you have to buy in packs of 20, and cost the equivalent of 9 pounds each. How much are they in the UK? Even those are going to take at least 2 weeks to arrive.

Anyway, my point is, this wouldn’t be the first time that the British government has announced barbaric measures shortly after hearing the Oz plan, which is the most inhumane government in the “Western World” in my opinion.

DockOTheBay · 09/01/2022 05:59

@RoyalFamilyFan

Great I will have to self isolate rather than lateral flow test before seeing my friend undergoing cancer treatment. She will have less visitors as well as many wont be prepared to do this.
I expect they will still be available. They just won't be free.
DockOTheBay · 09/01/2022 06:09

@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.
I think the short staffing is exactly why asymptomatic testing is ending. A high percentage of those nurses and ambulance staff who are at home isolating are asymptomatic or over the illness and just sitting there feeling 100% well but unable to work.
crosbystillsandmash · 09/01/2022 06:12

@chaosrabbitland
I really do think you're in the wrong job, your lack of both knowledge and outstanding.

I'm also irritated with the weird gaps you leave between commas and questions marks, I hope you don't do that at work Grin

mjf981 · 09/01/2022 06:13

@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 Smile
Agreed. Totally. I hate the environmental impact of covid. All the tests and masks that have ended up in the oceans, further destroying wildlife.
KiloWhat · 09/01/2022 06:15

Sounds a disaster. The richest will be able to afford private ones. Two tier society.

KiloWhat · 09/01/2022 06:17

@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

Maybe get another job , it sounds like you don't like the public very much.
Stuffin · 09/01/2022 06:32

Can't wait and I think it's the right thing to do.

MarshaBradyo · 09/01/2022 06:32

@RoyalFamilyFan

Australia has so few cases that tests are really not an issue. In the UK we have sky high cases. This is simply a way of massaging the numbers.
Have you looked at the numbers?
GiveMeNovocain · 09/01/2022 06:33

@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

KiloWhat · 09/01/2022 06:36

asked inane questions , such as when are they coming in , and where else has got them , all in a whingey voice and pained expression this isn't having people be horrible though.

rrhuth · 09/01/2022 06:38

@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 Smile
surely marks a clear path this whole thing becoming endemic wtf does that mean?

We don't get to decide when it becomes endemic, this is the government just giving up on protecting the vulnerable and the country as a whole.

Many countries don't have free LFTs anyway, so there may be an argument for a change in approach, but ignoring the virus in the way the Tories are trying to move towards is poor policy and will create more problems, not fewer.

Notable we are facing six more years according to the article. Should be investing in school ventilation etc.

LuckyMeISeeGhosts · 09/01/2022 06:45

Good.

Joystir59 · 09/01/2022 06:47

I thought the suggestion was to stop FREE LFTs. That people will still have to do them but pay for them.

moose62 · 09/01/2022 06:59

In most countries you pay for your LFTs. They are stopping the access to free LFTs so that if you need one you will have to pay. We can't continue to get free tests as well as PCRs, it is not sustainable.

Onehotmessiah · 09/01/2022 07:01

It’s also not true and has caused a run on tests again. The ridiculous political one up man ship and the media have a lot to answer for.