GeniesLoki

People who anticipate still having lockdowns and social distancing by then - talk to me about Christmas/new year/winter festivities? Either cheerful thoughts or "being sad together" would help me right now I think.

I am planning to test and self-isolate for Christmas in order to be able to safely spend it with my parents. I do not know how much of the rest of my family will be able to do this, but hopefully some.

That had not even occurred to me as an option, and I'm not sure my parents would go for it.

It's definitely possible to make it as close to 100% safe as baseline just existing in normal life, but it's also almost certainly going to be against the rules, so I don't know if I can recommend it.

I am not sure I endorse testing if you've been self-isolating anyways (tests are apparently only reliable in the first few days after symptoms appear, and if you don't have any symptoms and haven't been around other people...?)

The plan was to use testing to to shortcut self-isolation to a more manageable length. Self isolating for long enough to be safe is brutal. Though hmm good point RE test reliability.

I think if there's enough testing capacity it probably wouldn't hurt but if it means someone who might actually have Covid doesn't get a test, for minimal benefit to you (in that it gives very little additional info - obvs Christmas is a benefit!!), I'd question it a bit more