And I think the accuracy of the self tests kits is questionable? Perhaps depends on the brand, but if not 99% accurate could they create more problems than they solve? I’m not sure I’d cosy up to someone based solely on the self tests…
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The UK has carried out an enormous number of tests - about 345 million - far more than any comparable country - well over twice as many as France, for example, and over 5 times as many per capita as Germany - countries with far fewer cases and deaths (which rather negates the argument that the UK has more cases because it tests more).
As Mat and Jane have said, this has little to do with people’s safety - the tests are often inaccurate anyway - rather, it’s symptomatic of the total failure of the UK government’s ‘world beating’ test and trace system, on which they’ve wasted vast sums of money (or rather deliberately given it away to their private sector cronies).
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I’ll leave you to have a righteous moan amongst yourselves and mute my own thread. 
My experience? Friends have had their daughter’s wedding in a restaurant in London. Party of 80 people, no-one wearing masks, everyone tested, everyone well, everyone had a fantastic time.
Hi Sue
The rates in UK although high have an infection rate of 0.345% so only one in 282 people currently have the infection in UK and about 1 in every 1000 in France.
In your example of the wedding - in UK you could attend 4 weddings of similar size before you are likely to come into contact with an infected person.
I am visiting the UK shortly and will have to do a self test for the first time, so should be fun.
I am a little concerned of the environmental impact of the single use plastics involved with the testing process.
Errm 1:60 in England
So, encounter 80 people and the odds are 74% that one will have Covid
Encounter 160 people and the odds are 93%
Not to mention billions of discarded masks.
The ONS data is likely to be more reliable.
At work we don’t test ourselves (although I am fairly sure we had a bunch of tests available at some stage so they are probably still around). We wear masks all the time and clean our hands and everything else we come into contact with at least once an hour. The nurse is often to be seen wandering about thermometer in hand doing random temperature checks.
I’m not self-testing. If I felt unwell, I would keep isolated and see how things progressed…
We went for our 3rd Jabs today and on arrival, the infirmier simply asked if I felt OK… yes… then took my temperature. Had to try 3 times until I moved my thick fringe… it was reassuring when she finally said… yep, you’re alive and well… 
So perhaps the sensible approach is to stay home if feeling at all under the weather… and if feeling ok… going out and about armed with mask and Pass Sanitaire… and zap a thermometer hither and thither… a bit like Zorro…
Except that among the vaccinated there are an increasing number of entirely symptomless cases - but which could pass on serious disease to others. Perhaps the unvaccinated should be more afraid of us!!?
I think the unvaccinated-by-choice can just take their chances and had better not complain if they do get covid.
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we wear masks when near other people outside and indoors too… always using gel and distancing…
works for us… and for others who are doing exactly the same.
It’s the unmasked ones who worry me… trying to get closer, as I step back and back.
However, I can’t spend my life in fear… we do everything we are asked to do and watch our health most carefully. Really cannot see the point in testing everytime, before going out…
My concern is that you would need to be constantly testing to be totally sure. Test negative in the morning, how do you know you are still negative by the evening or next morning? Everybody tests negative right up until the moment they test positive.
Either the reassurance given by a test is very short lived, or it is providing a false sense of security, and that is leaving aside the accuracy of the test.
It seems safest to me to always behave on the basis that despite my best efforts I may conceivably be unknowingly infectious and ditto everybody I meet. Mask, sanitizer, avoid crowded situations.
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I went to see friends at their house last week. Bundled up warm, arrived with mask on, suggested we stay on the terrace as we had in the summer. Mask off only when distance was achieved across the rather large table.
Halfway through tea a sort of sleety rain started. So we moved inside, mask on, keeping as much distance as possible.
They’re as wary as me, we’re all fully vaxxed & still too early for booster. Working on the basis that we all have to assume we could be infectious but symptomless.
IMV it’s just common courtesy until Covid is much more rare, even at a private house.
Will it become rarer? Or just go from pandemic to endemic?
Ah…Geoff… you picked up that bit I slid in about “when Covid becomes much more rare”.
Yup same as you. Really hoping we won’t have to live like this forever. But not self-indulgent enough to rebel and decide I am not going to take the prescribed precautions. Unlike so many I see around my local supermarket with masks around their waist because they’ve decided wearing a mask properly is inconvenient to them personally 
Self-test kits are available here in France. They cost about 25€ for a pack of 6. Most pharmacies sell them - just ask for autotest du Covid.
They can be a useful reassurance. I am double vaccinated but about two weeks ago developed a persistent headache, runny nose, general aches etc.
In normal years I’d just put it down to the change of seasons and possibly a slight cold. With the spectre of Covid casting a shadow, it was reassuring to take a self test which showed that Covid was not responsible.
It was a genuine question - I really don’t know how it will end up - I suspect like a more serious flu that will always be with us now - but I guess we’ll have annual vaccinations (as with flu), and the medics will gradually improve other treatments - allowing the dropping of masks etc.
Not any more. You can’t now just pick them up. You have to phone, get a code, and then then go the the chemists to pick them up, or they can be delivered by post. I’ve done 3 test in the last week in the UK to see my mother in a nursing home. My sister goes more often, and tests almost every day. I’m back home in France now as of this afternoon 
after a stressful 7 days in the UK.