Moonshot or Pie in the Sky?

[Snog]

Does Boris's so called moonshot plan have any real credibility?
Or am I right to dismiss it as moonshit?

Dido not Dodi

Dodi or even a dodo may be more effective.

Is moonshot a made up word? Never heard it used before. So, I don’t really know what it means.

It is from 1949 in the context of launching a rocket to the moon. Since then it just means any very ambitious project with a low chance of success.

Do they? Who are they? Large scale testing doesn't control the virus at all - it simply tells you who has it. And as increased testing in some areas is now showing, increasing testing simply tells you that lots more people have it - including large numbers of asymptomatic people. So test more and the numbers go up.

Testing,tracing and quarantining is why so few people have died in China and SE Asia of covid.

That and the brutal efficiency of a high-tech police state (although some aren't police states, they seem much less worried about data protection than we are).

I'm sure it's possible given enough time but I'm sure Christmas was mentioned, maybe he meant the following Christmas.

I'd rather they spend the obscene amount of money on something else like extending furlough for people who can't go back to work yet or towards schools for extra resources or more/better ppe for nhs/police/teachers/shop staff etc or on ANYTHING that doesn't include backhanders and pay offs to corrupt family and friends!

This! It's a stupid idea & it'll never happen

I think it’s reasonable to be working on this, but the ridiculous bit is announcing it to the public as though it’s something that’s going to happen. Better to wait until it was feasible.

I really want them to announce their plan to get the Daleks to exterminate the virus.

Boris is a great lover of the big idea. Bridges to Ireland and then to NY.

In this case as a pp has pointed out an early vaccine probably won’t be a game changer just a mitigation for a few years.

Being able to quickly test yourself or test staff, users and visitors in a place of work, health care setting or school makes these places safer.

I think someone has suggested that developing on daily site testing for homes, hospitals and schools is feasible within a reasonable time. Boris has then gone for the running a marathon before you can get off the couch.

@RingtheBells

I'm sure it's possible given enough time but I'm sure Christmas was mentioned, maybe he meant the following Christmas.

Dear Father Christmas,

I have been a very very good boy this year. Don't believe all those horrible things people have been saying about me as they are all untrue. Pease can I have A Moonshot for Christmas.

from

Boris
x

The tech doesn't exist, so how the fuck can he and his scientific advisors promise such a thing? fair enough a politician being an ill informed idiot but i thought Whitty was supposed to be a little more honourable/knowledgeable.

There are rapid tests in development but so far none are reliable or have any regulatory approval.

He would be better off improving the current testing regime and focus on Track and trace, it's very poor at present, just 68% being contacted

So more Moonsnot.

So there are two types of tests PCR and antibody.

PCR tests look for the nucleic acid of the virus (the genetic code) and will indicate you have the virus right at that point in time. PCR tests are usually accurate but require a certain level of technology to perform. Hence for everyone to have a machine in their house would be very expensive... And, the test would be simple enough for people to perform, remembering the average reading age of an adult in the UK is 11, and most people can't wear a mask properly!

Antibody tests can be cheap - indeed the "pregnancy" style kit is cheap to manufacture lateral flow device.

Antibody tests can tell if you have got the virus but also if you have had the virus. You typically have one type of antibody in the first stage of the infection and then another antibody as the virus takes hold.. I won't bore you with the science.

What it does mean is that you could test positive for an antibody but no longer infectious.

The challenge with antibody tests is the level of sensitivity required. When people catch the virus they have varying levels of immune response, leading to different levels of antibodies, and in some instances people can can the virus whilst not expressing high levels of antibodies, or antibody expression may only ramp up over time..

So there isn't a magic bullet at the moment. I fear that the comments made by Johnson were to hide the mess that is currently happening with track and trace, and the lack of tests at the moment.

When Johnson was talking about tests he seemed to skip between PCR tests and antibody tests messing up the two types of technology.

To be honest his smoke and mirror approach works as we are talking about this and not the millions paid to Dido Harding (married to a conservative MP) or the millions wasted on PPE that didn't work (and again channelled through an advisor of Liz Truss.

'Moonshot'?

Yup, 'Moonshit' is more like it :(

Moonshot = injection in your bum.

It's apparently got the same amount of funding behind it as the whole education budget, yet there's no additional funds for schools or universities. I wonder if someone's standing to make a lot of money here??

Yet no money to extend furlough schemes, and they're already crapping on about raising self-employed taxes.
It's actually fucking insulting, how stupid does he think we all are?

Following on from Islington uncle you can also have a positive antigen PCR test and no longer be infectious ( but at present we have to regard a PCR positive test as an indication of infection and act as though infectious ) . And of course @ 1:5 tests give a false negative result .

If this was a serious thing, shouldn't they be saying first will make sure current testing is available again, then we'll have targeted testing for key workers, etc etc building up to mass testing if feasible?

But that's not headline grabbing, is it? I actually think it's been put out there to garner headlines, start threads on Mumsnet etc to distract from the shit show that is this government's only raison d'etre - Brexit.

I think, perhaps, Cummings and Johnson and whoever else was involved meant this as a joke?

Perhaps it was a private joke - laughing at all us plebs who were meant to fall for it ...

Testing only works if people are able to isolate if they test positive. Many can't afford to, others choose not to. Fix that, and testing may help.

Of course, it would be helpful if track and trace wasn't a shambolic disaster.

The problem is BJ only works with hyperbole, so he has taken strong, well thought out, workable plans (with risks, mitigation’s, dependencies), not understood them properly, mixed them up, and added some spin and metaphor in trying to explain them

It’s just a load of bollocks to distract everyone from the government planning to break international law (regarding Brexit).

@WhenSheWasBad

It’s just a load of bollocks to distract everyone from the government planning to break international law (regarding Brexit).

It is so embarrassing! Can you imagine if the shoe was on the other foot?

I think I read recently that only 25% of people who are told to isolate actually do, and I’d guess the lack of financial support has something to do with that. Plus in the U.K. you have to isolate in your home trying to socially distance from your family which almost impossible if your accommodation is small or your family large. Financially and practically helping people who are infected to isolate would be a fixable problem that I think the government could usefully tackle first.

It's actually fucking insulting, how stupid does he think we all are?

Very, as he and the tories are still level or even ahead in the Polls.

No one in the media is questioning the govt over this or anything else, easy interviews only.

Moonshite?

See this thread.
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4019922-to-explain-why-testing-lots-of-asymptomatic-people-everyday-is-a-bad-idea

Its a dead cat.