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Original poster

To be desperate for government to start charging for LFTs

293 replies

CautiousOptimist11 · 21/01/2022 07:32

I'm not sure I can take it any more. The absolute dependency on these tests, the fact that a positive or negative means that all critical thought and common sense fly out the window. Even as the omicron cases get milder, people are still clinging onto these tests and cite their results as a means of explaining their behaviour. A positive test is a dramatic thing to be waved around like you have the plague. A negative absolves you of keeping away from the vulnerable even if circumstances suggest you'd be better off doing so. It's like a religious cult of people who do not understand science medicine or statistics, but believe they have all the knowledge. Dangerous. Just get on with it now people, please. Get on with your lives.

Not even going to get into the hideous, hideous amount of plastic waste created in all of this ....

So, let's start charging and see whether the LFT dependents still shove a stick up their noses at every opportunity

OP posts:
LakieLady · 21/01/2022 07:54

I wouldn't dream of visiting my 83yo MIL without testing first and I like to think that most people feel the same about elderly or vulnerable relatives and friends.

I could probably afford to pay for them, but there will be many people who couldn't, and would risk it.

I also think the cost of providing them for workers in settings like care homes would be a big burden for businesses and charities that are already operating on very narrow margins thanks to cuts in public spending.

It's in all our interests for them to remain free and freely available.

hugr · 21/01/2022 07:55

@00100001

But you'd be taking precautions regardless, surely?

Yeah, and one of them is lateral flow tests.

neverbeenskiing · 21/01/2022 07:56

I work in a school so have to test twice a week. Do you think I should have to pay for that myself, OP, out of my own pocket on top of already buying my own resources, plus food, sanpro, pens, tights and other essentials for kids whose parents can't/won't provide for them?

Testing is now pretty much the only protection we have in schools since the Government scrapped all other guidance and the promised air purifiers failed to materialise. Our school is on the verge of having to send year groups home because we have so many staff off with covid.

Warmduscher · 21/01/2022 07:57

DS has to test three times a week when he goes out on visits to vulnerable adults as part of his job as an assistant psychologist in the NHS. His work doesn’t supply them.

You really haven’t thought this through, have you, OP?

AlDanvers · 21/01/2022 07:57

You don't like lft so are "desperate" for other people to be priced our of doing them?

Doesn't even make sense.

Aroundtheworldin80moves · 21/01/2022 07:57

I just love starting the day by sticking a stick up my kids nose. Its my new favourite hobby...Hmm (another school needing daily testing due to high cases)

crazyjinglist · 21/01/2022 07:58

What absurd hyperbole. I've seen no evidence whatsoever of the behaviour uou describe. Just people taking lfts when appropriate and behaving accordingly. INo fuss, no drama. In fact there are almost certainly loads of people who are supposed to be taking lfts regularly and who aren't bothering. The person being over-dramatic here is you, OP.

CrazyLadyTheThird · 21/01/2022 07:59

My entire family has covid at the moment. We are completely asymptomatic and only know because we did an LFT before visiting a newborn. You’re completely unreasonable to attack people who use them to prevent the spread of this stupid bloody disease. If you’d said because it might reduce the insane amount of plastic waste then maybe you’d have had a point, but in this you’re just a complete arse

MrsWooster · 21/01/2022 08:01

How lovely for you not to have to consider where the money is coming from to pay for tests which are required by school /employers, common sense and morality unless you’re a denying headbanger

Russell19 · 21/01/2022 08:01

@hugr

My infant son is immunocompromised and it helps us feel more comfortable to have people visit him if they have taken an LFT and its negative. If he got covid he would probably be very unwell, he was in hospital for 3 weeks with a cold.
The issue with this is that my LTF was completely negative at 9am, by 3pm was positive. They can change so quickly.
Russell19 · 21/01/2022 08:03

LFT* no idea what a LTF is 🤣

Teddybar · 21/01/2022 08:07

I think there should be better control on them, a bit like most NHS services etc some people think because they're free at point of use it's a free for all, but of course we will all be paying for them for many many years/decades to come. I can see their use, but people taking them daily just because, or taking several to make sure is just ludicrous. We are one of the only countries not to charge, and everywhere else seems to be more sensible regarding when they are appropriate- funny that. So I half agree.

LemonViolet · 21/01/2022 08:08

I think it’s weird you believe people aren’t “getting on with their lives” just because we use LFTs? I’m “getting on with my life” Thankyou very much, but seeing as in come into contact with hundreds of people a week at work I’m going to do an LFT before seeing clinically vulnerable family at the weekend. I really don’t see how it affects you or why you’d be “desperate” for me to pay for this precaution to reduce risk to my loved ones?

Maybe you should just get on with your own life, OP, and stop spending time worrying about what other people are doing.

The tests being free to everyone on demand is doubtless lower cost overall to the taxpayer than coming up with any kind of entitlement or eligibility system, btw.

SamMil · 21/01/2022 08:09

If I'm honest, you sound ever so slightly crazy.

People are taking LFTs as a way to mitigate risks to other people. To describe that as a religious cult sounds a little dramatic..!

The only point I do agree with is the plastic waste.

hugr · 21/01/2022 08:12

@Russell19

LFT* no idea what a LTF is 🤣
Of course, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't use them though. A negative LFT suggests that the person is less likely to have covid.

I can only take precautions, otherwise I have to completely isolate my son all the time (which incidentally I have been doing since he was discharged from hospital 2 weeks ago).

We can't live like this though, so LFTs are one way of making us feel a bit safer.

TheresSomebodyAtTheDoorNeil · 21/01/2022 08:14

Ive never taken one, if I ever needed a test ive always just gone to the testing centre for a proper one.

But no, they shouldn't charge for them....... That's the ultimate rich / poor divide...... And if the millions of people who are struggling financially already stop bothering to test that would create carnage

ItsSnowJokes · 21/01/2022 08:15

YABU. So the financially squeezed in society (which is only going to include more and more people with inflation and energy bills sky rocketing) cannot afford the tests, so they infect more and more people.

Bagamoyo1 · 21/01/2022 08:15

I think a lot of you are missing the point that OP is making.
The idea is that, by charging for the tests, people will think twice before indiscriminately testing themselves and waving a positive around like a badge of honour.
I don’t think OP is advocating a system in which people who are TOLD to test (for work, school etc) have to pay for their own tests. It’s more to do with stopping the requirements for those tests in the first place.
That’s my interpretation anyway.

Onlinedilema · 21/01/2022 08:16

Dr is at uni and they have to test twice a week. No way on earth is she paying for the tests. She's already been screwed over having to pay full fees and full rent for the whole of t he pandemic.

dingledanglewoowoo · 21/01/2022 08:18

@CautiousOptimist11 your OP is ridiculous. You make it sound like people with negative lateral flows go and lick their grannies.
It's one very useful tool to help us manage a real risk. I have no idea why you'd have a problem with that.

nether · 21/01/2022 08:20

They'll either be provided by work/school if they require them. As they generally are now

And what if the person is critically vulnerable, and cannot get from either of those places, but still wished to follow the govt CEV advice to test, and have guest tests, before meeting?

I really hope this does not become an extra expense on the most vulnerable - cancer wrecks family budgets anyhow as can other diagnoses. Adding to that is not a good thought

echt · 21/01/2022 08:26

How does the OP not get that LFTs (and masks, and social distancing by the way) are all ways of getting on with life?

"Getting on with life" invariably means doing fuck all to mitigate Covid in certain posters. Like the OP.

Tricked2003 · 21/01/2022 08:28

My elderly patents live close by and are vulnerable. LFT test have been vital to keeping them safe, teen dc test before visiting as cases are sky high in school.
Should we have to pay for the privilege?

MargaretThursday · 21/01/2022 08:28

It's like a religious cult of people who do not understand science medicine or statistics, but believe they have all the knowledge. Dangerous.

The irony...

Chloemol · 21/01/2022 08:29

Yawn, go away

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