Something similar is happening in France: the tests are going to be available but no longer subsidized/covered by the state soon in an effort to encourage people to get vaccinated instead of relying on PCR test after PCR test to prove they haven’t got COVID.
I see this exempts children but makes the mistake of tying specific vaccination decisions to the public health benefit of having free testing. It's abusing a public health tool as a cudgel, a pattern I'm seeing in various places.
If this happened in the US, it would just lead to undocumented spreading and delays in care, worsening outcomes.
Im worried with things like this, and similar missteps by the US government, we're heading back to March 2020.
As an adult you currently can get the shot without a waitlist or even an appointment.
I wish everyone would get vaccinated. But they're not, and there's breakthrough cases (this has happened to multiple people I know personally).
I guess I see this in the opposite way as intended: why should an adult who's been vaccinated be punished in trying to get tested, as a side effect of trying to punish someone who hasn't?
This virus is a moving target. The test doesn't just benefit the person tested.
> I guess I see this in the opposite way as intended: why should an adult who's been vaccinated be punished in trying to get tested, as a side effect of trying to punish someone who hasn't?
From my experience vaccinated people don't bother testing them selves - and I can totally relate as a fully vaccinated person.
The risk of spreading the virus as a FFP2 wearing vaccinated human seems to be so low that I personally tend to not care much.
What bothers me is that we as German citizens have the rare opportunity to get vaccinated and get back to a more normal life - but it seems like only ~60% are really interested in getting the shot. Right now we have too much vaccine doses and actually giving them to other countries (at least).
People just not going to their vaccination appointments, or cancelling due to a barber appointment, ..
This saddens me. I somehow thought the idiot ratio is lower. The pandemic was eye opening in that regard.
The virus may be a moving target, but all governments have shown that they are willing to fund public safety against infection. If circumstances change, we may have to return to free and widespread testing, but the hope is that vaccination can drive the active infection rate to 0 which is something that all our measures for the past year have been unable to do.
Suspending tests for free though will mean many testing sites closing down, making it logistically harder for families to do certain things during vacation. But that is dependent on whether or not tests are required.
Yes, it will continue and they are also required to wear masks all the time. Where I live school has started again and nothing has changed. The treatment of school children during the pandemic in Germany is a disgrace.
Why? This seems pretty safe compared to other countries.
similar problem here in Denmark, in my case since my child is autistic it is difficult to test or vaccinate him.
Furthermore since I can have the disease despite being vaccinated I would like to get tested when it makes sense to do so.
on edit: the problem I mean is the higher level one of 'are subject to testing requirements if they become ill'.
A vaccinated person may only spread if they are indeed infected, which is less common to begin with. Then, if they are indeed infected, the rate of transmission is much lower - as they usually don't develop heavy viral loads.
Um, this is the case also for the unvaccinated.
False-negative results exist.
I keep hearing this but I don't understand where it comes from. IIUC, it doesn't matter that you're as contagious when sick and vaccinated as unvaccinated. When vaccinated you are less likely to contract the disease in the first place and therefore reduce overall transmission.
If there were a Restaurant C that required only proof of past Covid through antibodies, I'd eat there.
> vaccination does not prevent transmission
statement is a very valid one. I'm vaccinated but I really dislike the decision to cut public funding for the tests.
When tested negative you are even less likely to spread within the context of the flight/concert/etc that both are attending.
When unvaxed person takes a test to, for example, take a flight, we know reasonably sure he's not carrying/infecting fellow passengers.
When vaxed person goes on the same flight he/she might well be carrying/infecting fellow passengers, because the vaccine does not stop infections.
First we needed to get vaxed for saving the old and sick by herd immunity. Since vaccines do immunize the herd immunity is no longer discussed. Then we needed to get vaxed for stop the ICU overload. Since the old and sick are vaxed and/or have already been sick, we now have no more overload on the ICU. But we still need measured because some infection metrics need to stay out of the red to allow tourism/trade to pick up.
This is some serious goalpost changing. Why?