Do you have questions about regular rapid Covid-19 testing for you and your family? Laverne Antrobus and Dr Zoe Williams are here to help.

[CeriMumsnet]

This Q&A is now closed.

Now that children are back at school with regular testing in place for secondary and college aged students, the government is encouraging parents, carers, and those in bubbles of all school children to help keep everyone safe by getting twice weekly rapid tests for Covid-19 when they don’t have symptoms. We have invited expert child psychologist, Laverne Antrobus, and GP Dr Zoe Williams to answer any questions you have about regular self-testing.

Find out more about the experts below:

Dr Zoe Williams MBBS, DRCG and MRCGP is a practicing NHS GP and media medic with accolades such as being named on the Pulse Power 50 List as one of the country’s most influential GPs. Outside of the surgery Zoe is a National Advisor for Public Health England and is a clinical advisor to the RCGP. She is a director and founding member of the British Society of Lifestyle Medicine. Zoe is currently one of the resident GPs on ITV’s popular daytime show This Morning in addition to presenting for the BBC’s ‘The One Show’, ‘Horizon’ and ‘Trust Me I’m a Doctor’.

Here’s what Dr Zoe says: "Regular rapid Covid-19 testing using lateral flow tests is a fast and easy way to find out if you have coronavirus when you don’t have symptoms. Around 1 in 3 people who have Covid-19 have no symptoms and could be spreading it without knowing. Testing twice a week will help stop the virus spreading, keeping your family and friends safer.

As a GP, I’m asked a lot about testing and want to help answer any burning questions you have about the new tests. I’m here to help talk through any of the more technical parts - is there a right way to test? How is testing helping us? Why secondary age children are testing but primary aren’t. As lockdown restrictions are eased I’d love to clarify any testing questions that you might not have had time to ask your GP!”

Laverne Antrobus is a consultant child and educational psychologist with over 25 years experience. Having trained at the Tavistock Clinic in London, Laverne works with children who present with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties and their families in one of the Tavistock’s specialist multi-disciplinary teams. Laverne appears on popular daytime broadcasts and is often asked to give a psychological perspective on issues that affect children and their families in both radio and print media. She has made programmes on childhood and parenting for the BBC, Channel 4 and Channel 5.

Here’s what Laverne says: “Now that regular rapid Covid-19 testing has started to become part of the new routine for families, I want to help provide support and guidance for any queries you may have. I’m here to answer your questions - I have tips on how to make testing part of your new school routine, how to explain to your child the importance of carrying out tests when they don’t have symptoms, and the reasons why these changes will help to keep us safer.”

Would you like to learn more about how regular asymptomatic self-testing can help your loved ones and the wider community and how it works? Perhaps you’re after tips on how self-testing can be incorporated into your busy family life or you’d like some advice on how to talk to your children about regular testing. Post your questions on this thread and Laverne and Zoe will be online to answer them until 14th April.

Please note that Laverne and Zoe will not be able to respond to questions asking for specific or personal medical advice. If you are worried about a personal health issue, please contact your GP.

As a thanks for their time, all who leave a question on the thread below will be entered into a prize draw where one Mumsnet user will win a £200 voucher for the store of their choice (from a list) supplied by Mumsnet. The prize draw will be carried out on 15th April.

Thanks,
MNHQ
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Where do we see the answers? Some great questions on here

Will the tests show positive if you have had the vaccine?

If you've previously recovered from Covid-19, is it still a requirement to get tested?

If you have long Covid, do you still need to get tested?

Who profits financially from these tests?
Why are they used on asymptomatic people when their false negative rate for asymptomatic cases are so high?
Psychologically, do you think that giving children the sense that they are a source of contamination is likely to have negative affects down the line? (Thinking here of gay men during the early part of the aids epidemic)

I recently had to get my 6 year old tested for covid for the second time and the swab was so traumatic for us both, I had to basically hold her down she even ended up with a bruise on her head from trying to get away. Do you think they'll ever make it mandatory for primary school as I won't be able to do it again, it seems too cruel for her.

Who profits financially from these tests?
Given they have a very high false negative rate for asymptomatic people why is this who they are targeted at?
I'm not avoiding these tests for my secondary aged child but I think they are questionable as a policy decision.

When I took my young child for a PCR test last year I was told I could just swab their nose. Is this an option for adults doing lateral flow tests? I find the gagging reaction unpleasant each time.

We've not told our 6 year old we are doing the tests as we don't want to worry her that her going to school is in any way unsafe or a risk of getting the virus. Do you recommend talking to her and showing her what we're doing, or just keeping it quiet to shield her from any anxiety about the process?

My DD is at secondary school and is testing twice a week and bringing the tests home, we are thinking about getting tests for our 2 primary aged children too, especially the older one. The younger one has developed anxiety though to do with Covid- any tips on whether testing him would be a good or bad idea? He refuses to wear masks, tidies obsessively at home now too, won’t play with children at school etc. because he does not want to catch the virus. Won’t happily enter a playground etc. The whole virus situation has been very bad for his mental health so it is difficult to know whether testing him will be a good idea or not. In addition, both parents have been vaccinated - should we be getting tested or would that be a waste? I am interested in knowing whether LTF is aimed at picking up vaccinated people with no symptoms or not.

Why does the introductory spiel say that LF is appropriate for non-symptomatic testing?

Lateral flow tests for a high viral load/ shedding virus/ likely to infect others. It does not test for any covid infection. It is perfectly possible to have negative LF tests every day, and still be positive for covid.

Lateral flow testing has it's place, but it cannot and will not replace pcr testing. Why are the 'experts' on this thread touting it as such?

(My expertise: I work full time in covid testing in a private hospital)

Do you get a negative result if you don't stick the swab in far enough? I find it really difficult and painful. Will different methods of testing be developed?

Messaging has been so poor. So many parents at our school are using LFT’s to test their child when they develop a cough or whatever. They get a negative and child goes into school “because they haven’t got covid”.

These LFT tests are totally being used to avoid isolating and pcr testing. Half the people doing that probably don’t even realise that’s the wrong way to go about testing symptomatic people.

Presumably messaging has been poor as the exercise is not really of much value, and these LFT’s (moonshot) tests are too inaccurate for much else.

Lateral flow devices have the advantage of giving a result in under 30 minutes - but aren't as accurate as PCR tests, which must be sent to a laboratory - if you get a positive - will you get a PCR test - and will I have to pay for it ?

My young adult student is CEV and will be due his second vaccine soon. Will this affect his LF results for a short period of time or does he temporarily stop testing?

What is the accuracy of the lateral flow tests? I've heard everything from 3% to 60%. Isn't there a risk of people taking a test, getting a false negative and then taking part in more risky behaviour (e.g. social distancing goes out of the window) because they are falsely reassured it's OK to do so?

My son has tested positive with three lateral flow tests but still waiting for his results form his pcr test. At which point will test and trace contact us and will we be told to isolate from the date of his positive lateral flow test or from his positive pcr test? Thank you

No question - just a comment to say that it is brilliant to see an educational psychologist doing a Mumsnet Q&A; as a profession we really do not promote ourselves in the media as much as we could and so this is great!

I've been testing regularly since January as a member of school staff and have found that my throat and the lining of my nose are getting very sore now and inside my nose is starting to break down., with bleeding when I blow my nose. Are there any health risks associated with this? Also will the bleeding affect the test results?

With the incidence of Covid now so low (ONS say something like 1 in 1500 people) and the false positive rate for LF testing being appreciable, you come up with something like any LF positive being 20x more likely to be a false positive than a real positive. Presume this is even worse odds if the child is asymptomatic (and if they were symptomatic, you'd be going for the PCR anyway).

So for every positive result, a child would miss probably 2 days of school (given the wait time for a confirmatory PCR test to be done and come back). Worst case scenario, school is very conservative and their whole group is sent home for these two days. 95% of the time there will turn out to be no covid involved.

I am really unsure that this is a benefit - either to my child, or to society as a whole.

What is the quantifiable argument for LF testing of asymptomatic children at current covid prevalence levels?

Also in your intro you say that all children are back in school. We're in Scotland, my early secondary children have been home since 18th December and don't go back until 18th April.

My son's school has been giving out LF tests since early March when schools reopened so we're quite used to them by now. Is there any hard evidence to date that this new regular testing of school students at home 2x per week has been making a real difference in picking up cases and keeping them down?

Also, do you think that continuing to allow these home LFTests to be voluntary is really the way forward, or could there be a case for a less optional approach, perhaps particularly in hotspots/where the virus is out of control?