Offset your £800 house party fine by catching COVID & receiving £500 from UK Government

BBC News - Covid-19: Ministers to consider £500 Covid payment to boost self-isolation rates
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-55760467

 

Surely the issue would be people not self isolating when they haven't tested positive, ie, close contacts? I'd imagine (hope) that 99% of those testing positive would be self isolating anyway!

 

Sounds like a disastrous idea!

 

So they are considering paying people to do the right thing. I might send them a list of all the things ive done wrong, i will be minted if they pay me to do them right

 

When the richest person on earth and some very influential celebrities are catching it cuddling up to each other then saying they are ‘enjoying the DayQuil fever dream’ it trivialises it in the eyes of those that might not be so lucky/ so able to access top class healthcare.
Similar to what I saw at the inauguration, though at least they had masks on (real pet peeve of mine when people think having a mask on makes it impossible to catch rather than reducing risk).
UK and USA got very lucky that a vaccine was developed relatively quickly.

 

What’s to stop people hosting a COVID party so that they test positive, so they can self isolate and claim £500?

 

Imagine takeaways you could get with that ! I'm off for a test.......

 

Its as much to incentivise people to get tested as it is to make them self isolate ( remember if you get contacted by T&T be it a telephone call or the app pining, even if you have had C19 and the vaccine you are legally required to self isolate).

Rapid dropping of positive tests means that the lockdown measures cannot be justified in their current guise.

Currently its an average of about 40K positive tests a day this week. that is 200000 people told to self isolate. You pay them £500 to do so.. thats £100m in theory. Just for 5 days...

 

So people who are skint have a incentive to go out and catch Covid so they can make some cash and the government can keep up infection rates to keep this going on and on and on and on.

 

Why?

 

Also seems incredibly unfair to those of us who caught it early, I was before the £500 for isolating also so basically had a week off unpaid in May feeling awful and a week of forcing myself to work as couldn't afford to be off.

 

I haven't answered a unknown number since Test and trace started. Never had the app either, not interested in being forced to isolate when I'm not ill.

 

I don't subscribe to a conspiracy theory though I do wonder where we will ever end the restrictions. Once the NHS is no longer at risk of being overwhelmed beyond the normal level it overwhelmed then we should start the move back to normal.
Instead I expect to hear about long Covid, more mutations or the virus. Talk of infection numbers and risk of transmission. Then fear for the winter ahead.
I don't see how we escape from the corner we have painted ourselves into. Maybe that's just the depression talking.

 

I can't talk about your mood, only you know that, and as someone who has had to shield (for what, 10 months now?) I full well understand what it feels like to either not be allowed, or to choose different behaviours and activities that were habit and common prior to March.

It feels a sensible thing to do, to analyse data and understand it as time passes. Find reasons, identify problems and find a way through. Vaccination seems the one hope as humans at our current population levels and our point of societal development don't seem to be able to counter the virus and keep it in check.

We could build more hospitals, train more staff in emergency respiratory techniques etc. But they all take time and obviously its a huge cost. I think after a year, it's still true that mankind hasn't got the answer. As i can't see the West allowing what China did (and even now it's re-emerging).

I don't think t's so much a corner, its a challenge we've not faced for a long time with a much more interconnected hedonistic social world.

 

Bad cold - coughing/sweating etc so phoned 119 at 3.00 p.m yesterday - Covid test time arranged for 3.30 ! - Regent Street Car Park - text 8 a m this morning - negative - super efficient!

Immediately after test given form to fill listing all contact during last seven days - if you test positive you're contacted and asked to name everyone you've been in contact with and identify where you've been - problem is you wont identify those people who you think are outside your 'bubble' or those you think will be inconvenienced if they have to self-isoalate.
Not sure what can be done if you say you've been to a supermarket.

Wonder how I've got this cold/virus - always wear a mask - washed hands and Kylied.

 

My mood is close to despair to be honest. Just worn down with it all.
I'm sick of seeing daily deaths reported in a way we have never done before.
I'm sick of being told to "stay safe" as if I'm the kind of person who would go and take a shower with a toaster!
Sick of people who can work from home and have a secure salary describing others as "Covididiots"
Now I'm reading about how even with the vaccine we will still need restrictions.
I know many are struggling a hell of a lot more than myself, but I've still had enough.

 

I can appreciate all of that (though one or two from a different standpoint). If there isn't anyone who hasn't had enough of this, and a long time ago... well, they are either very lucky or just not doing what many are.

 

It's like bribing a kid to be good !

 

You're totally entitled to feel that way. I've no work and not even getting furloughed this time around due to changes making the employer bear more of the cost. I've a son who isn't engaging with home learning and barely sees sunlight. Can't wait to get back to actually socialising properly again.

 

Think work is the only thing keeping me sane at the moment!