Public health expert argues for testing, contact tracing and isolating programme.

[Guylan]

Easing social distancing without a proper programme of testing, contact tracing and isolating will lead to a second wave of coronavirus”

Well argued article by Global Professor of Health, Professor Devi Sridhar. She believes the best strategy ahead that will protect public health, society and the economy is a comprehensive programme of testing, contact tracing and isolating. Mixed messages from govt whether they are giving enough focus to this due to a split in the cabinet on whether to follow this or the natural herd immunity strategy.

amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/may/12/tories-lockdown-social-distancing-testing-second-wave-coronavirus?__twitter_impression=true

*correction Devi Sridhar is Chair of Global Health at Edinburgh University.

no mixed messages at all, the public health experts say the exact same consistent thing. test trace and isolate.
politicians who know nothing about health matters waffle; in some countries more than others.

fallfallfall, you are right. I am v worried that the UK govt are not putting all their focus on building a large scale testing, tracing and isolating system.

They should have absolutely put that at the heart of their lock down release plan. The problem is, as soon as you start explaining the importance of testing, tracing, etc, it exposes all the massive cock ups they've been in charge of so far - the millions of faulty tests they've bought, the faking of the 100,000 tests a day, the fact that they are only just realising this is the right path now, rather than riiiiiiiiight back at the beginning of the pandemic....

Nellodee, absolutely agree with you!

I think the number of cases need to be much lower first otherwise it will be impossible to implement.

I can see governments putting the onus on employers. Workers will feel unsafe, employers will be forced to offer testing (otherwise no one will show up). Government not out of pocket.

I think the number of cases need to be much lower first otherwise it will be impossible to implement.

Yes, I believe that has to happen first and I have seen Devi Sridhar say in tweets.

Agreed that the number of cases is too high. It’s clear that they eased the lockdown 2 to 4 weeks too early.

This article is so correct. It articulates the uk situation perfectly. I wish the government would listen to this lady.

It’s actually reassuring reading this for me. It explains everything I was thinking and I know I am not going crazy as the government strategy is so difficult to fathom.