Want a Moonshot test so you can resume normal life? You will have to pay.

[HeIenaDove]

inews.co.uk/news/politics/daily-moonshot-tests-covid-nhs-paid-by-public-655089

Daily ‘moonshot’ tests for Covid-19 will not given out by NHS – the public will have to pay
Dido Harding said that the tests should be seen as a ‘cost of doing business’ for people who want to attend conferences or go to the theatre

Daily “moonshot” tests for Covid-19 which will allow people to resume normal life will not be available on the NHS, the Government’s testing czar has suggested.

Dido Harding said that individuals and companies would have to pay to access the proposed tests, which would return results in as little as 15 minutes, as a “cost of doing business”.

Up to 10million of the tests are due to be made available every day as a way of getting the UK closer to normality before the advent of a coronavirus vaccine. If you take the test and get a negative result it means you are not contagious – even if you are infected – and can therefore visit the theatre, attend a conference or socialise without fear of passing on Covid-19 that day.

Private enterprise here we come. And this is presumably the real reason that Can'tdo Hardly is being touted as the incoming head of the effing NHS in place of Sir Simon Stevens (yes really).

She is a businessperson in bed with the government who are desperate to privatise the NHS.

Presumably the idea is that the government funds millions of pounds of research (which would bear much of the risk).Then, if anything useful comes of it, a fat contract goes to one of their mates. Anyone wanting to lead a normal life would have to pay for testing and in comes private healthcare. All bound around with strings and caveats and sweet deals to siphon off a profit from an NHS that will have struggled through one of its worst ever winters.

We don't need clapping. We need real outrage. About all of it.

Here is a list of Government contracts that has been going around twitter.

Just amazing.

This is staggering corruption and incompetence.

Fuckers.

I can sort of understand it for "luxuries" such as going to the theatre or on a flight.
Depending on the cost, if you're paying out to go on holiday then a few extra quid for a test isn't a big addition.
I do strongly disagree to it for every day and necessary things like going on the bus, to the supermarket or to work.b

@herecomesthsun

Here is a list of Government contracts that has been going around twitter.

Just amazing.

This is staggering corruption and incompetence.

And you have people defending them by extolling the virtues of the private sector.

This isn’t about private vs public. It’s about failing to do due diligence, dishing out large contacts without a competitive tendering process, and rewarding companies with further contracts after abysmal performances.

It’s a colossal misuse of funds. But hey we trust the Tories with money!

KitKat, FWIW I can't see the average Mr/s Shopper paying week after week purely to prove that they're not contagious for the benefit of going to Tesco. I'm buggered if I would, that's for sure.

On all the other points about this corrupt bunch of charlatans which call themselves our government, I agree!

This proposed system sounds far more complex than they are capable of administering.

I think I read on Twitter about the PMs brother now involved in a health form bidding for moonshot testing - only link I can find is Daily Fail though

Leaving aside the private contracts business (which is a disgrace), and the extreme unlikelihood of Operation Moonshit actually happening, in principle I don’t really see it as the business of the nhs to provide people with tests to enable them to go to the theatre or on holiday or resume normal life, anymore than government should be responsible for giving everyone three meals a day or a free toothbrush. If it happens (big if) it will just be another, probably small, personal cost like the costs of buying toothpaste and pregnancy tests and the prescription charge. People on low incomes should be provided with the ability to test in order to access things like libraries, public transport, shops etc, should these things require testing (I strongly suspect they won’t). Anyone who can afford a holiday or tickets to Man Utd or Glastonbury should consider it as much part of the costs of attendance as their hotel, transportation etc.

You mean I don't have go to do conferences or opera if I haven't had the test? Gosh, that sounds great!

*not usually invited to opera, but work conferences can be a drag. Oh, but I'm paid by NHS, so if work paid for me to attend the conf then NHS would be paying after all.

My heart bleeds.

These 'leaders' (let's use that term really fucking loosely here) don't even try to conceal their agenda.
I'm less scared of Covid, more afraid of the shock therapy being delivered to us courtesy of Covid. And the confusion of the rules, the testing, all this chaos is certainly generated on purpose. Keep the people's heads fucked up, wear us down, wear us out, 'covid fatigue', 'Brexit fatigue, so that we can't even think our way out of a paper bag.

Breeze through this. Feels more like livestock branding than anything else to me.

www.bmj.com/content/370/bmj.m3558

"What is a digital passport?

Testing for access to certain spaces features heavily in the documents, with reference to “immunity/virus free passports,” likely to be available through an app. The plans say that testing could be used to “give people assurance that, at least for a limited time, they are unlikely to have the virus and are at low risk of transmitting it to others.”

They say, “A negative test result (or potentially a positive antibody result) may inform not just whether you could attend an in-patient appointment, but if you go to work that day, access a venue, get on a flight or visit an elderly relative.” The documents also point to a “significant expansion” of testing funded and delivered by the private sector, such as in football stadiums to allow access."

Why am I not surprised. These bastards.

Some more discussion on twitter here

without fear of passing on Covid-19 that day.

What is the evidence that it works for 34 hrs. Is it 24hrs? What the evidence ?

So we pay £100 billion and have to pay again to get a test? Fuck that

Correct. Don’t forget everyone, WE are paying for this. We are paying for all the future problems it’s going to create and now for tests to let us out. We should be pounding down the door of number 10 over this utter chaos