Ending of free testing in England

My husband is vulnerable, and yes I'm sick to death of it. We are a developed, organised country. We have national healthcare, we, as a rule are very disciplined - we queue remarkably well. As a national I do feel that we should be in a better position. People complied when they were asked to make sacrifices. Yet we have soaring rates etc. and the government response is confused and illogical.

volver

Mask wearing is required by law in Scotland and we have a far higher infection rate than England at the moment.

How do we explain that?

Have you seen this from the BBC, Volver?
Dr Christine Tait-Burkard, a leading infections expert at University of Edinburgh, told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland that cotton masks offered "much less protection" from the BA.2 subvariant because far fewer virus particles needed to be inhaled to catch it.
She said: "The surgical and cotton masks just allow for a little more of the virus to get through. They are still very good for people who are lower risk - they stop them shedding a lot of virus into the environment.
"For people who are more vulnerable it is probably the moment to increase to an FFP2 mask just until the pressure in the environment from so many people infected actually decreases."
Dr Tait-Burkard said she did not believe legal enforcement of face masks was needed any more, and that recommending people wear them in high risk environments was the right thing to do.

On your own local numbers, I wonder how many of those covid patients were admitted because of Covid and how many just happened to have Covid alongside whatever they were admitted for.

I had seen that, but thanks SueDonim for posting it.

I don't know about Fife but Dr Monica Doyle said recently that between 1/3 and 1/2 of the patients testing positive for Covid in Ninewells were either asymptomatic or had actually come in with something else.

volver

Nope.

The higher rate is based on sampling and extrapolation done by the ONS, and is done exactly the same way in England.

Scotland does actually have a higher rate of infection than the rest of the UK at the moment. And anecdotally, about 90%+ are wearing masks.

Scotland's population is (more than anecdotally) less healthy in general than England's. That might explain some of it.

Oh goodness, what next.

It's infections that are being measured, not people who are ill.

It's because Scotland got the BA2 wave before England, possibly because we have had lower infection rates up until now. That's a guess. But England are coming up on the inside lane. New ONS data comes out tomorrow.

I have been trying for the past week to order LFT kits online but each time it has told me there are none, yet we have not yet reached the deadline. I still have some, fortunately.

I sing in three choirs and we are expected to take a test before we attend - and obviously not attend if it is positive. But I don't know how many people will pay for tests in future.

Does anyone know how much a testing kit will cost?

I won’t be buying any I have a few left when they are gone they are gone

PamelaJ1

Does anyone know how much a testing kit will cost?

So far from Boots and Superdrug just under a couple of pounds
No doubt eventually will find them in the middle aisle of Aldi

The trouble is BlueBelle that one never knows when it’s handy to have one.
A couple of weeks ago I was on holiday at a Warners hotel. Lots of older, maybe more vulnerable, people. I received an email informing me that someone I had been talking to, for a while, on the previous Saturday had tested positive. This was Wednesday and I was so relieved that I had my testing kit with me.

Thanks rosie

PamelaJ1

Does anyone know how much a testing kit will cost?

Seems to vary. I "think" the UK was one of the few areas that offered free testing. Certainly family and friends abroad had to pay for LFTs. As I understand it countries in Europe charged but a much lower rate than suppliers want to charge now. Looking online it seems to range from about £3 to £5 for a single test! If you want, and can afford to buy 100 or more the cost comes down. This is a disgrace. I've just checked Boots and theirs is £3.95 for two tests which while cheaper is still out of the price range for many, and certainly if you're a family with 2 or 3 children. I think if the state don't want to provide them free of charge they could supply them at cost, which given their purchasing power would be pennies rather than pounds.

Australia’s LFT tests were $20 for 2 single ones.

Have always had to pay, unless you went to a testing centre, with huge queues,

They were never free. We have been paying for them all along. Now there are more urgent things that need paying for out of the general tax purse.

volver

I have no time for Christina Pagel; her three myths in the article cited:

1. Covid is endemic: Nobody has said this and she is using it to create a false environment of discord, to suggest that we are being lied to.

2. People believe that COVID is evolving to become milder. That has never been proposed in any communication from anywhere, because it would be a lie. If you think that COVID is evolving to become milder, you’re not paying attention.

3. Nobody thinks we are “finished” our vaccination program. We’ve just started the second booster program for the elderly and vulnerable. Hardly “finished”.

Mathematician Pagel is part of Indy SAGE who are hardly exemplars of good pandemic forecasting. And are suddenly finding themselves irrelevant.

Sorry, but she gets on my wick. Please feel free to tell me I don't know what I'm talking about, I'm sure somebody will.

You're wrong. I can't be bothered scouring the internet for people who have claimed any of those myths, but GN would be a good place to start. There are plenty of people who have perpetuated the myths.

PS. No, you don't know what you're talking about.

Bingo!!

Family and spouse carers are the most likely people to be living in poverty and will not be able to pay for tests and they need them the most. Some of you seem to lack the imagination to think or feel anything outside of your own lives. I could give other examples but I am losing the will to live atm (and I have covid)

I interpreted the cost incorrectly. I now understand that the cost is approx £2 per test. I thought it was £2 for a full kit of 7 tests! Silly me.
That is ridiculously overpriced £14 for a few bits of plastic made in China.

I've got lost with all the changes, thanks for posting this. It's rife in the small village I live in.

I've just ordered my LF tests, at £1.79 per test (non travel) from Lloyds pharmacy. No free collections available at any of my chemists. I want to be able to test before I see my son.

Sorry, £1.86 per test. These are nose only, I just have two individual nose and throat tests left.

lloydspharmacy.com/

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/92b46368-b0d0-11ec-8570-b43daaf58ea1?shareToken=e2e37c00640bab752102b6e7df158927
Hopefully the price will fall as outlets try to undercut each other

I don’t agree with you about Prof Pagel or indeed Indy Sage volver.
These myths as growstuff said are quite common, many people have voiced similar to me and indeed on Gransnet.
I think the government has been irresponsible in dropping all protection, including testing, when we are in the middle of a huge surge in infections, which is disrupting hospitals, and schools and workplaces.

Indy Sage has made numerous suggestions with regard to mitigations for living with covid such as funding for ventilation systems, and better funded public health departments, which the government has ignored.

I think Indy Sage has a better track record than the government with regard to covid, but that’s not hard.

I accept that what we choose to believe is never free from political bias, but to me politics affects everything to some extent.

I think Indy Sage has a better track record than the government with regard to covid, but that’s not hard.

Indy SAGE have no responsibilities as regards COVID and have the luxury of making forecasts and recommendations that are not subject to public scrutiny or the exigencies of actually having to run a country. They have called for lockdowns when no lockdowns were required, they have forecast huge numbers of cases and deaths, forecasts which did not prove to be true.

I'm not defending the Westminster Governments handling of the pandemic, not in any way, but a self appointed group of unaccountable scientists shaking their heads at me and telling me they know best, just doesn't work for me.