Gov says 43000 false covid test results is not cause of suge - Bollocks

[trumpisagit]

www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/25/false-covid-test-results-not-cause-of-surge-south-west-england-says-no-10

I cannot believe they can get away with saying this!
Children in my DC classes, scout leaders, DH work colleagues all had positive LFTs and neg Pcrs. Following the advice they went back to school, work, normal life.
Our local rates have shot up in a very short time period to 1800 per 100 000.
Yes SW rates have stayed low through the pandemic but the speed of the rise can only be blamed on the pcr fiasco.
I am livid that they think they can get away with this, with no apologies or explanation.

Here are the rates in 10-14 year olds in the 13 most affected areas.

I don't think they are areas associated with historically low covid rates? When people say that the SW had low rates, they generally mean Devon and Cornwall, not Bristol or Swindon.

It’s all about their mates and scratching each other’s backs
I work in a Gloucestershire school, the last two weeks have been hellish! Pupils and staff going down like flies. Two of my colleagues are very poorly.

Can’t believe that lab is still in operation!

Randomly, but quite interestingly to me...
I got positive LFDs for 9 days.
2 x neg PCR from test site.
1x positive PCR from postal test on day 8.
On day 15 I did a swab for the ONS/Oxford covid study. Fully expected it to still be positive and have to argue with test and trace the fact that I don't need to re-isolate.

Just got the result and it was void.
I've done a LOT of tests as we've been in the ONS study over a year, plus I've done regular LFDs and PCRs for symptoms. I'm sure I did it properly. So why was it void? I don't know which labs the ONS use. But there has been some talk on covid twitter about strange numbers of void tests...

I wonder if this is a trail the ZOE project might pick up? They’re an approved source to request tests to amongst their contributors so they have an investment in this.

And why didn't PHE notice? It is extremely concerning that it took so long to be officially recognised.

Well, yes, especially since all they had to do was log on to mumsnet to get an inkling that there was a problem!

I agree with a PP, so many things people have reported on here anecdotally have turned out to be true on a large scale. Very sad when MN is more reliable as a source of information than the government or government agencies (but it is).

@Tinysnickers DH just had a void result too from an ONS test. Weird as we’ve done loads of tests now.

We’re in an affected area too. Our cases have gone up by over 900% (they have been very very low throughout until the false negative fiasco)

I know an adult and 2dc who got false negative PCRs from this lab and as a result attended school and went about in the community. (South West - they were notified afterwards (too late) that their tests could have been wrong). I am pretty sure that this is how my dd ended up catching Covid and giving it to me and my dh.

I completely agree OP. DD had mild symptoms, 21 out of 25 in her class had had Covid so she took a PCR. Negative so went back to school the next day, feeling okay. Just had an email saying her result was void but not to worry as it's too late to take further action. Seriously??? So how many people did she potentially infect?

@trumpisagit

Why are the gov standing up for a private laboratory, and not throwing them under the bus? Why don't we yet know what went wrong to cause 43000 false negative tests? Without wishing to be too dramatic people will have died who wouldn't have otherwise. There should be a proper investigation.

Didn't Matt Hancock award the contract? Probably one of his cronies. Doubt his mind was really on the job anyhow given the contents of the video.

Yes suddenly we had recognised cases in brownies and scouts and not just one case. But also unlikely to have spread at one of those as they were outside. So likely school. And looking at noble's chart i guess the actual line is completely different. But the end point being around 5%! Well thats 3 per dc year group per week.

I think the other q though is if figures were accurate what action would have been taken.
Would all scouts/brownies etc have been outside/masked leaders?
Would schools have ventilated better- stopped clubs/had bubbles. Not had visitors in?
Im not sure as it doesnt seem our la was acting on it at the end of term.

Anecdote has become far too scary word for incurious officialdom. Public health responses in the UK scare me tbh.

@trumpisagit

Teacher in large secondary in SW and yup this totally fucked us!!!! Until the last week of term
And anyone with a positive LFT told not to come in but damage was done by then

The case rates are apparently down!

I say apparently because the Zoe app estimates 92k cases! Something strange going on…

This is what happened to public health England
www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/society/2020/aug/20/sick-politics-at-the-heart-of-phe-closure

Yep Gloucestershire here and DS positive after a friend in his class was positive on a LFT negative on PCR and went back to school as felt better. Most of his class are positive and we've had to cancel all plans to see my elderly parents over half term.

They need to speed up the booster programme in the SW affected areas, us parents with underlying health conditions waiting for the booster here are fucked.

Because all along this government wanted herd immunity.