The number of secondary school pupils able to return to the classroom will be limited by the Government’s insistence that a positive lateral flow test result in a school cannot be overruled by the standard PCR test. Schools Minister Vicky Ford has said that pupils who test positive via the lateral flow tests will need to isolate, along with their families and close contacts and “should not take a PCR”. The BBC has the story.
The Government is sticking to the rule that a positive rapid Covid test done in secondary schools in England cannot be overruled by the gold-standard tests processed by labs.
Concerns have been raised by testing experts that significant numbers could be incorrectly told they are infected.
They have called for all positives from the rapid testing done in schools to be confirmed by the standard PCR test.
This is what will happen when testing is done at home after next week.
It will mean a pupil who tests positive at home with a rapid on-the-spot test – known as a lateral flow test – will have to isolate on the basis of that test, but will be told to get a PCR test which is processed in a lab.
If that PCR test is negative they will be released from isolation.
But for those done in schools – pupils are being offered three tests in the next two weeks – it will be assumed the lateral flow test is right. A PCR test cannot overrule the lateral flow test.
The article draws attention to specific examples of failures taking place under this system:
One of those who has been affected already is the family of Richard Patton, from Derbyshire.
His son’s school started rapid testing last week and he tested positive. Mr Patton arranged for his 17 year-old son to get a PCR test, which came back negative.
But the whole family, including his 15 year-old daughter, is still having to isolate at home.
“It makes no sense. They were looking forward to going back to school and are now stuck at home.”
BBC health correspondent Nick Triggle points out that even if the chance of false positives is very low, “it could still lead to thousands of people having to self-isolate for no reason”.
If just half of pupils take up the offer of three tests in school and the false positive rate is 0.1% that could still lead to around 6,000 pupils being asked to isolate at home over the next week or so when they are not infected.
Tiggle makes a good point. Given the low prevalence of the virus and the false positive rate of the lateral flaw test, a majority of positive results in schools will be false positives, as Sheila Bird, a member of the Royal Statistical Society, has pointed out in a new paper.
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: The Government has now said that if a child tests positive in a lateral flow test but negative in a PCR test, they will not have to self isolate, according to ITV News’s UK Editor Paul Brand.
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Rather takes the fun out of first!
Solution is obvious, do not consent to your child being tested. No false positives then, or isolation.
I never thought liberal democracy would end with a whimper rather than a bang. Almost a year on – confined to our homes, entertainment shut.
If the enemy was at the gates we could have had a fight. But the enemy was in the Universities, the House of Commons, the NHS.
The enemy is pretty much everywhere except the 17 States in the U.S.A. that no longer insist on mask wearing.
That is the diminished size of the free world today………
The parallels between Deutschland 89, crowds surging from East to West Germany in 1989, and the crowds outside Ibrox stadium in Glasgow yesterday, are striking….with pretty much exactly the same reaction from the respective apparatchiks.
I don’t think the fire has yet been lit in this country, but some sparks maybe point towards the direction of travel……
The May elections will hopefully illuminate matters further….
i ve never been so happy to be american even though in the wrong state at the moment , a mask crazed one with zombies galore
with pretty much exactly the same reaction from the respective apparatchiks.
Yes I remember some concern in the Guardian at the time when the Wall came down, about people being ‘seduced by western materialism’ etc.
Indeed – do NOT consent. We just shouldn’t be testing anyone without any symptoms. And WHY is the BBC still putting out incorrect information…I’m pretty certain there is still, currently, NO test that can tell whether you are currently INFECTIOUS. A year ago, if a parent wanted their child to undergo an unpleasant medical test, when they are perfectly healthy – it would have been a red flag for a safeguarding issue!!
I strongly object to their “gold-standard tests” lie. We all know there is not a gold-standard test and PCR at the current settings is far worse than useless. Where are the fact checkers checking this (sarc)?
It is really pissing me off that they can just invent facts without challenge, while simultaneously accusing the other side of exactly what they do themselves.
Infuriating to read Nick T at the BBC now concern himself about false positives taking away the education of the young. We’ve just gone through a winter of staff shortages at the NHS due to testing healthy people with a test not fit for purpose.
More signs of narrative breaking down – the organiser of a nurse’s pay rise protest has been given a £10,000 FPN by the police for breaking lockdown; despite her protests about everyone wearing gags and antisocially distancing etc. Did she think it was only those evil Covid deniers who weren’t allowed to demonstrate?
Testing an idea
We could pick an article for the day’s posts (the first ?) and provide a link tn the comments on each article which pops up later
e.g. **** Main chat for 8/3/21 on the following article ***
https://dailysceptic.org/2021/03/08/a-doctors-account-of-the-effect-of-lockdown-on-womens-mental-health/
Moderator will delete any “off-topic” comments. It sucks!
Can any body tell me if a positive LFT at school means you have to self isolate the house hold even if you test negative after taking “the gold standard” PCR? There seems to be conflict in the media and So called experts. I’ve just had a massive row with my wife about it.
Even the Lancet have said the PCR is not the Gold Standard. Of course Reiner Fullmich and Co know it’s too late for excuses and that the PCR criminals will have their day in court
I think it’s a shame LS has moved to this new structure. It was much better before. This feels… fragmented.
Anyway, an update from on the ground in a large sixth form college in outer London. All students came back today and were “invited” to their COVID tests on a rotational basis. Very few know that they can decline.
Almost all students are wearing masks. The College’s policy is to ask them to wear a mask if they are not wearing one and do not have a medical exemption; if they refuse, they are sent home. This is, of course, illegal, and was specifically outlawed by the DfE.
Leaders in my school have deliberately obfuscated things, misleading students and staff alike into believing they are mandated to wear masks in classrooms. It is only a recommendation and a cursory glance at the DfE guidelines makes this abundantly clear!
My manager came to see me at lunchtime. He kept his mask on the whole time, even though he said it was uncomfortable. He said he was doing this in case somebody saw him. He told me that I have little to lose, implying that it was easy for me to make a stand about not wearing a mask. I said that this was true – I am leaving this school at the end of the Easter term – but that I will be fighting the same battle in my new school, and that when the cries for mandatory vaccination for teachers emerge, I will be fighting another battle again. He concurred re: the possibility of this happening but said to me, it’s totally illegal, they can’t do it, they can’t. I said to him: off the record – the College is sending students home if they don’t have a mask? And he said, yes, they are, yes; it’s illegal.
And then he added that I was the only staff member who had pointed out that mask wearing is voluntary, that the Principal’s reply had been “well, she’s exempt”, when of course I am not; but that it was the Principal’s way of dampening down the resistance. I said, well, I will try not to “radicalise” anyone up here (thinking happily to myself about how I will lead by example and tell the truth when asked). I have been asked to stay away from the shared office so as not to make others “uncomfortable”.
It makes me sad that people don’t realise what their rights are. When children asked me if they could remove their masks, I said they should look on the DfE website and speak to their parents if they have concerns. I said if the Principal saw them they would be asked to put a mask on.
Disgusting.
“the College is sending students home if they don’t have a mask? And he said, yes, they are, yes; it’s illegal”
All it takes is one tiger mother to turn up and kick up hell. Then it might be a case to take the course of least resistance.
Anonymous letter on your behalf to Head of school re masks and testing – also great for facts
https://democracydeclaration.com/lawyers-for-liberty/
This is the template letter we will be sending.
Request a letter from Lawyers for Liberty to your child’s school
Respect. Well done.
I’m a long way removed from what now passes for the state education system, but I’m curious to know why every maths & science teacher isn’t taking a similar stance? If not, what on earth are they teaching?
First day back in class today.
Unedifying sight of rows of muzzled children.
Explained to them that IF they are to wear a mask they should refrain from touching it as far as possible, to help avoid things like rotten gums and bad breath, which went down well with teenagers as hoped.
End result, lots removed them.
Five minutes later a senior member of staff burst into the room demanding they all mask up.
Should have told her where to go, but chose instead to ignore her and wait patiently for her to leave before continuing.
Later in the staffroom confronted a room full of masked zealot colleagues instead to make myself feel better for clamming up, but still feel I should be defending the kids more than I am.
Yet without exaggeration I think I am the sole dissenter in the entire place.
What a repellent place a school has become.
Hi,
great post. Having read reports today that kids are apparently complying with masking up in class and taking their lateral flow tests, I would be very interested to read more of your take on this.
For example, from your own experience, are kids generally happy about this state of affairs or is their some resentment? Are they responding to pressure from the school, peers or even parents/family?
I find it difficult to believe that kids are unaware of the fact that the virus is not only of vanishingly small danger to themselves but also that they are not deadly transmitters either.
As for the sceptic teacher above – respect & well done.
I’m a long way removed from what now passes for the state education system, but I’m curious to know why every maths & science teacher isn’t taking a similar stance? If not, what on earth are they teaching?
Thank goodness for a bit of sense. Since LFT tests will determine whether a child has to self isolate there would appear to be no good reason to do the PCR tests which will eventually result is some cases of brain damage with so many being done by inexperienced practitioners.
Eventually found the comments. How do we navigate this site now to add comments please anyone?
There is no link to comments on the daily articles that I can find at all.
JohnB published this yesterday:
As far as I can see, you just click on the headline for whichever of the news articles you wish to read, scroll down to the foot of the page and there you will find the comments section for that particular article. As you will find, it isn’t quite so busy anymore. Most of the regulars have understandably taken exception to what Toby wrote yesterday in defence of his decision to break up the comments section (see below) and moved over to the admirable Mabel Cow’s site: https://www.reddit.com. Early days but it’s coming along nicely. Take a look.
And well done for being the sole dissenter and defender of sense and decency in your school. Very courageous indeed.
The full address I should have used for the new swamp is https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSceptics.
https://twitter.com/JuliaHB1/status/1368908660261421056
Ah, ha! Comments!
Not quite the same, but hopefully people will find their way here.