Fran is the Queen! Seriously Fran, take it easy - you may have it but your immunity is maybe keeping the viral load so it doesn’t register. As I mentioned over Xmas my grandkids and son in law had it but we (my wife, daughter and I) kept testing negative even though in fairness I had more symptoms than the kids.
Have heard from many friends and family of delays up to a week between getting symptoms and a positive LFT. Could always get a PCR test sent out to you as you have symptoms (if the gov are still providing them, I'm not keeping up with the latest changes) and they seem to give more conclusive results. I have driven to two drive through PCR testing centres during the pandemic and have had the results back in less than 24 hours. Hope you feel better soon!
Lateral flow or PCR, self tested or by a medic? Good to err on the side of caution and cold, flu or covid you don't want to pass it on. Health services also predict a rise in traditional winter illnesses as the restrictions are eased. Get well soon, these help. please log in to view this image
Keep testing would be the best way but there is every possibility that Johnson will end free testing, in his speech today. I have seen a comment that 20 LFTs could cost £55. How many millions won’t be able to afford that? All comments I have seen, from medical bodies, is to continue testing, if only so we are keeping up with variants as they occur.
How much do they cost in other countries? My boss was telling me in the states they cost something like a fiver a test which seemed crazy, and as you say will definitely stop people doing the tests
Had a slightly different situation last week Fran. I had some symptoms after seeing someone who later tested positive and my LFT test came up positive on Monday morning. My PCR test result came back negative however and when I did another LFT test, that also came up negative...The second line on my "positive" LFT test was quite faint, so I had my suspicions that the testy was either faulty or I had contaminated the sample somehow. Does make it tricky to know if you've had it or due to the conflicting evidence and test results
If theres no self isolation then theres not really any point in testing anyway. Or at least thats the message it all sends across.
https://coronacheck.nl/en/faq/2-1-ik-wil-mij-laten-testen-waar-kan-ik-terecht/ Free in the Netherlands, there are paid sites also listed.
I think Portugal is €3 and can be bought in supermarkets. Spain, I think was €10, only available from pharmacies, but I think they are capping the price, in line with other EU countries, by law, to prevent profiteering. The UK price would work out, based on £55 for 20 (if that price is correct) and current exchange rates at about €3 each. The main issue, for me, is poverty preventing people from being able to buy tests.
It's a scenario where under testing leads to under reporting Science and medicine lose track of the virus, transmission, infection and the chance of mutation increases. Short term gain, long term pain.
Donald Trump wrote the playbook on demanding a reduction in testing, but that was at the height of the pandemic. I see no reason or logic to scrap free testing now though, despite the gradual lessening in numbers infected. As a retired NHS scientist, I feel the way we come out of the pandemic has to be informed by doing as much testing as possible. The only way we know for sure infection rates are reducing is by testing. It's blindingly obvious that making people pay for LFT's will result in fewer LFT's being performed.
I have seen cost being mentioned as making free tests unsustainable. I have also seen the cost put at £2 billion per month, then seen a Tory MP, on a chat show, putting the cost at £5/6/7 billion per month, which smacked of someone plucking a figure out of the air then increasing it to support his argument and to see if his figures would be challenged, which they weren’t. I don’t know if ignoring it would be cheaper or more costly, if it leads to more vulnerable people catching it, keeping the pressure on the NHS. There are still doubts as to how beneficial the vaccines are to those with immunodeficient systems, so not testing puts them at greater risk again.
A scientist who worked on Astra Zeneca vaccine said the infections will go up as more restrictions lifted, but would happen whenever this was done....now or in 6 months. We do have to learn to live with this. I have known several people who have had it recently and all said the same thing....in normal times without the threat of Covid they would have thought nothing of it and would have just carried on. There will be people who get it worse, but that is true of flu. People die every year from flu. The main thing is to keep up the vaccinations....hopefully to the point where one annual one combined with the flu jab is enough.
Comparing flu/pneumonia with covid is dangerous. The CV-19 deaths are far higher. Vaccines are vital, watch panorama now regarding world distribution. It's shameful and any real move to a new normal will depend on worldwide vaccination. Edit: This from October last year 2000+ weekly deaths since then. https://www.bmj.com/content/375/bmj.n2514
All true Fran. He also said and this is important, we are no better prepared for the next pandemic than we were for Covid. The only true prediction is that there will be another, and the increase in travel will only increase the probability of it being sooner rather than later.. Unless we plan and finance to deal with such eventualities we, or more importantly our children and their children will pay the consequences.. Will the current 'popular' polictical philosophies allow for acting on these issues, where profit is not the motive?
Medicine and science made the UK a world leader in spite of Johnson's incompetence. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...-will-put-blinkers-on-our-best-covid-research
Yeah, Trumpies genius was underestimated at the time, reduce testing=reduced official positive results. If that fails vaccinate the population with bleach.
