This was the BBC report dated 3rd August:
Coronavirus: New 90-minute tests for Covid-19 and flu ‘hugely beneficial’
New 90-minute tests that can detect coronavirus and flu will be rolled out in hospitals and care homes from next week.
The “on-the-spot” swab and DNA tests will help distinguish between Covid-19 and other seasonal illnesses, the government said.
The health secretary said this would be “hugely beneficial” over the winter.
Currently, a third of tests take longer than 24 hours to process.
The reaction of WHO 3rd August briefing:
https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019
Question is specifically about the UK fast test from about 41 minutes in:
Dr Maria Kerkhove: “evaluating all of these rapuid tests so that we can see how well they perform”
Dr Mike Ryan: ”tend to not be sensitive enough – in other words they miss infections”
Compare with ScotGov Briefing comments by Jean Freeman at around 38 minutes in.
https://mobile.twitter.com/scotgov/status/1290244817914658824
Jeanne Freeman:”but we need to be sure that the 90 minute test is as good as the current PCR test”
Is it me or are the WHO and ScotGov somewhat less gung-ho than the UK about this new test?
This is the reaction of some scientists to the new 90 minute wonder test that is going to be the salvation of the UK:
https://mobile.twitter.com/ProfSimonFisher/status/1290242308462587904
UK government has placed a £161 million order for rapid COVID-19 test kits with DNANudge. This company sells personal food shopping & lifestyle advice based on a consumer’s DNA sequence. Let me join geneticists around the world as we scream into the void.
Has the UK rushed into purchase of a test that has not been fully evaluated? It certainly looks like that to me. Why would they do that? Maybe this from the BBC piece above might explain it.
The announcement comes as the government pushed back a July target to regularly test all care home staff and residents – a key move to identify so-called silent spreaders, those who are infected but do not show symptoms.
This is unlikely to be achieved until September because the number of testing kits has become more limited.
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Getting a grasp of the technical side can be difficult. This piece, although it is a little old, does explain the basics of the different tests.
Sounds like the tests they devised to detect the presence of ferry boats at the channel ports.
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As soon as Halfcock of Bojo go on about ‘world beating’, ‘game changer’ or even just ‘hugely beneficial’ you just know its going to end badly / fade into history. That isn’t to say that I wish this latest test to fail, I am just incredibly skeptical due to its promotion to front and centre stage. Thank goodness SG has its feet firmly planted on planet Earth not Pie in the sky land.
Now that Exam Shambles is dying down, to be overtaken by the tsunami of outrage about GCSE and A level results, I am just waiting for Dross and the Baroness to wind up the MSM about this latest failure to embrace (or should that be embarrass) UK Government initiatives.
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All quite simple
All those who are incompetent with regards matters of the utmost importance
And when their greed ,self interest and complete lack of ability appears over the horizon about to enter the full angry glare
Of those they purport to represent
And you lose and they win no matter what
Then their actions become one of utter desperation
All done in due haste
But great care taken that no matter what
Their personal gain is well catered for
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Is tge UK Gov gung-ho aboout tge new tests . . . Or Desperate for anything to save them.
The UK Gov isn’t prepared to bring in the required measures in England to reduce infections to very low levels.
They have already got world beating Deaths and infections.
Is anyone else experiencing the following, on my TV the audio for the S ot Gov’s Covid updates is muffled and quiet, whilst on radio the audio is clear as a bell.
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