How would you use this test if we had it here? (And why haven't we?)

[PuzzledObserver]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-europe-54394128

Obvious first place to deploy it - health and social care staff. Possibly even at the start of each shift. Much better than the current system (my DH works in a care home) of have a weekly test, wait nearly a week for the result.

Could allow resumption of concerts and theatre etc if everyone was tested on the way in. Would you pay a fiver more and wait for 15 minutes, if it meant you could go to something you have really been missing? I would.

And as they appear to be using it in Madrid - test everyone in areas where cases are rising rapidly. That way you can find the asymptomatic people and get them to isolate, thus damping it down much much quicker.

Isn't that the plan, moonshot or something

A plan needs details. Who is responsible? Where is the money coming from? Where will the tests be sourced? Can the supplier provide enough? By when? Etc etc etc
Johnson just declares he’d like something. No details. He never intends it to actually happen.

Yes as @kimlo said it is already the plan for us to have this here.

Fast tests widely available in Italy too
www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-54356335
Why don't we have these fast tests here?
Why is the UK lagging so far behind and having big rises in virus numbers?

And although the government said they would perform regular testing on NHS staff, this never happened. My relative is a critical care nurse - has never had one routine screening test ever.

Shipyard is t(e auK lagging? I wonder. I suspect the reason has the initials BJ. Or possibly DC.

Fuck that makes no sense. Try again.
Why is the U.K. lagging? The rest makes sense.

Didn’t they use a rapid antigen test at the White House last weekend? It is the plan, but it’s probably a bit too soon to say whether that would allow mass gatherings to take place again.

It might add an extra layer of safety to socially distanced indoor ones in theatres, but it might not be cost effective enough to make things viable for them.

If it is 93% accurate (whatever that means) it might go a long way towards reducing levels in the community though, which would definitely help.

yes, rhetorical question really.
The fast tests would solve the bottleneck that is currently restricting testing capacity - the labs.
These fast tests are done locally while you wait. So massive increase in test capacity without any extra testing going to the (government's central) labs.
Suspect the massive efficiency and bypassing of the government's central labs might mean someone somewhere losing profit.

@cardibach

Shipyard is t(e auK lagging? I wonder. I suspect the reason has the initials BJ. Or possibly DC.

If they are manufactured in Europe then we definitely can’t have them. Bad for the givernment’s image. We’d have to start from scratch and make them in the U.K.

The government has mentioned these fast tests, but only in the context of aviation and sporting events. Clearly from an ethical and societal point of view the NHS and educational settings would be much more appropriate places to use these fast tests initially, unless there is no shortage.

If they are manufactured in Europe then we definitely can’t have them. Bad for the givernment’s image. We’d have to start from scratch and make them in the U.K Wonder how that tendering-process would go?

Only 93% accurate isn’t great. If that’s false positives, that is a lot of people self isolating (and cascading our to all their contacts too) who then have false confidence that they’ve already had the virus and are now safe. And if it’s false negatives that’s infected people continuing to spread infection.

My understanding is there are concerns over their accuracy. Although capturing 90% (say) of positive cases in minutes vs 99% in days seems like a fair trade off for people like care workers and hospital staff where it is regular testing to catch early/asymptotic cases

No, the fast tests give much fewer false-positives than the PCR testing currently used in the UK.

They may give more false negatives - not sure.

Definitely fewer false positives with the fast tests though (the PCR test magnifies/replicates the tiniest smallest and sometimes only partial bits of virus - and so gives quite a lot of false positives)

93% accuracy measured how?
My Twitter is full of explanations why fast testing means more false negatives.

Claims are that some kind of rapid antigen test is what was used for White House big groups recently. Look what happened there...

yes, fast testing - less false positives, same/more false negatives potentially?

It’s the same tendering process as the very successful one we had for securing PPE and boats.

Tbf having them manufactured in the U.K. with British materials makes sense. Trying to import them from Europe after 31st December could be problematic.

@RafaIsTheKingOfClay

It’s the same tendering process as the very successful one we had for securing PPE and boats.

Tbf having them manufactured in the U.K. with British materials makes sense. Trying to import them from Europe after 31st December could be problematic.

God, we can't actually start manufacturing them from scratch. The vaccine will be ready sooner. We will have to find a supplier abroad, the government will have to accept the profit might not go to their friends and donors on this one. And yes, pity the UK has pissed off the whole of Europe and can no longer rely on our closest neighbours...

@Disconnect

No, the fast tests give much fewer false-positives than the PCR testing currently used in the UK.

They may give more false negatives - not sure.

Definitely fewer false positives with the fast tests though (the PCR test magnifies/replicates the tiniest smallest and sometimes only partial bits of virus - and so gives quite a lot of false positives)

Do you have a source for this. The Covid 19 PCR tests have a very low rate of false +ves and, in the NHS/PHE labs are double tested, which reduces it further. It’s considerably less than 7%, more likely less than 0.1%.

I had this test a couple of weeks back because I was visiting the uk from Spain and wanted to reassure my parents (whose house we were quarantining at) that we were unlikely to be infected.

I paid €60 to have it privately and I got the results in 30 minutes.

I was told it didn't give false positives but had a 5-10% false negative rate. So for someone like me who had no reason to believe I had the illness, it was great.

I think that the fast response time is a trade in for slightly lower accuracy rates. But the PCR is not 100% accurate either. Spain is using it for testing whole workforces on a fortnightly basis, for example.

Oh God, no manufacturing them from scratch wasn’t a serious suggestion. That’ll be about as successful as designing new ventilators was.

I didn't say the PCR gives a high rate of false positives, just that the fast tests give fewer.
There was a virologist on BBC saying the PCR for Covid-19 does give false positives due to the large replication needed for the test and also the fragments/dead virus, but also because there is no lower threshold for giving a positive result. For other viruses that we use PCR testing for, there is a lower threshold, below which a negative test result would be given, but for Covid-19 a similarly low detection level is being given a positive result.

If you're using tests like that in an entertainment venue what happens if people kick off because either they don't want to be tested or they're asymptomatic and want to be allowed in regardless of a positive test?

Do those people get refunds? Is that enough to pacify them?

If it's just one person that's probably unpleasant but manageable - what if it's a big group of people kicking off and that is happening simultaneously in entertainment venues across a town/city?

It's all about the money, nepotism, cronyism and whatever else benefits your family and friends. Not sure if this relates to moonshot testing but I have heard it mooted that rapid testing will available for those who are willing to pay. Oh and Boris's brother is getting in on the act.

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/covid-19-test-firm-chief-22743592.amp