I’ve just signed up to receive these and then report results.
I know NHS staff have been doing LFT’s routinely, but wonder how many in the ‘general population’ have signed up to them?
I’ve been badgering my family to do it, just because I believe the more data the scientists can gather the better off we all will be.
Trouble is...depending on whose report you read these tests can be 50% inaccurate...& if people who are + think they are-.......Here we go again if people think they are 100% Covid free.....when they are not! But as you say...It’s better than nothing for research purposes.
The latest I read, is that the accuracy is better than 70%. Either way, better than nothing. Especially if it all helps prevent further lockdowns or ‘heaps of bodies’ (BoJo will never learn) 😂
My husband has sent for some in case he has to return to the office but he’s resisting. I thought they were fairly accurate. Maybe not but it could be that you have to have them some places to go to work. If Boz said heaps of bodies I’ll poke him in the eye, from a distance of course. I hope it was meddlesome Daily Mail talk. He was throwing a ball around somewhere on the news yesterday that others were touching. He never seems to really distance properly but it could be camera angles.
I got mine yesterday free at the chemist. It is a great idea to try and show people if they have covid and no symptoms. You still have to follow all the usual distancing rules but it might give you some indication especially doing them twice a week as is recommended that you have covid and so can more quickly self isolate, especially if you live in a large household or with more vulnerable people, these now being under 50s . Its for me not being selfish and helping others stay safe. If we are now having to go to " endemic " stage in the UK for a while, rather than " pandemic" stage it will help us know what areas are seeing more infections too.
They are more accurate than the original ones.
Got a letter today concerning these. I don’t think I’ll bother. Neither will my son aged 42 who also lives here. Not yet decided though.
We are being asked to do Covid tests from home twice a week. My manager is dropping mine off for me tomorrow. Many of my colleagues have gone back in the office etc but I am still working from home at the moment. I am just trying to get the courage to start going out for little adventures when feeling up to it. I have booked an appointment to have my hair coloured and trimmed after not being to the hairdressers for over a year. She will have her work cut out. 😂. Going on Saturday and she has booked me in when the salon will be very quiet bless her. Baby steps for going back out into the world again. More than happy to do the Covid tests from home for work purposes though. Not sure what ones we have yet but hopefully will help keep the rates of Covid down as we all start to go back into the office gradually. xx
I've been doing them for a few weeks now. If you order via Gov.uk website they only send one pack a time, but you can collect two packs from dedicated sites. I still follow all current guidelines and naturally hygiene. I don't have any false sense of illusion by doing them and I guess everyone has to think of what benefit it will be for them and their own situation. However I do find them a little time consuming in respect of twice a week preparing, doing the swabbing, the 30 minute wait and recording on line the result. Still if it helps research I will do them and am used to it now.
My whole family have used them for quite a few weeks . They do no harm and if they help stop the spread of covid the quicker we get our lives back
Thars how i feel x
I'm a bit puzzled about the value of these Lateral Flow tests. They may possibly have a role in showing the number of people who are infected/carrying the virus who do not symptoms.But I'm not clear how useful they are in the decisions of whether people should be altering their behaviour - meeting friends, family, going to work, out for a meal, etc.
If people have a negative result, I'm worried that they will behave as if they have no infection and take off their masks and get close to people. But done by untrained people the accuracy is around 58% - there's higher accuracy if done by trained technicians. So just under half of the people might have a false negative test?And if the local rates of infection are very low, then the proportion of false positives is correspondingly higher. Then it has to be confirmed or refuted with a PCR test.
I completely understand your points.There hasn't been enough research into their use or the efficacy and I guess doing them will help with that, and it is why we are being asked to report the results.
I will do it to help the effort, not for personal reassurance, it will not alter my behaviour.
For me, I feel unsure about the vaccines efficacy in those of us with suppressed immune systems and that will ensure my caution, until we have the outcome of the research into this at least.
Whatever I can do to help, I will do.
You have to report the results and if you are positive then have a proper test. Of course it means people SHOULD abide by the guidelines but you are always going to get people who flout these. I know a friends house mate tested positive but continued to do as he wished and infected the whole house. His mentality was if your too weak to fight it your deadwood 🤬you can’t change these people.It will hopefully help with r rate data.
Yes you are instructed not to change your behaviour when given them and they ask what your reasons for wanting them where. Mine was as ive only just stopped shielding im new to social distancing so if i did pick up covid and was asymptomatic id know to isolate.I think we need to get used to them being around for a while to get to shows snd theatres xx
I wasn't asked why I wanted them. I had received a letter, email and text telling me they are available.The more of us who behave with care and respect for others the better and that also creates a balance. Hopefully, the scales are weighed in favour of good behaviour and reduction of infection. The 80/20 rule will always apply (it might be 70/30 in the Covid case) 80% of people care and 20% do as they like and nothing will change that, well except perhaps a dictator style of governance.
Forward with caution and care...
Go gently
Yes it was Boots, she did a tick list! Why do you want them, do you have covid symptoms now, do you know to remain social distancing ..
...and that might put some people off! Daft really, as we need more doing routine tests.
These work .. our schools ask the children and parents to do them on a Sunday and Wednesday and report results. I know there have been positive tests with swift action and it stopped mass spreading. 2 years sent home from school only 1 child in each year tested positive so far no other positive tests. Same at my sons swimming club one positive test delt with quickly no spread so far .
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Earache off topic !
