Off Topic SARS-CoV-2 Covid-19

You can tell we’re mainly blokes on here. cervical and breast cancer both spring to mind. Both obviously women only and of specific age groups, but we certainly have mass screening programmes.

 

From minute one you don’t need many tests, potentially even only one.

From a few months in you’ll probably need a few more, exponentially.

As far as I can see where we are currently 100,000 tests a day isn’t enough, but as I said I’m no expert so don’t pretend to know that for a fact.

Anyway I thought you said the vaccine being ready by the end of the year meant we wouldn’t need so many more?

 

That's quite right. However, several factors in the UK mitigated against that choice - first the required expertise and staff co-ordination for manual tracking had been lost when Regional Strategic Health Authorities had been scrapped in 2010, second the huge capacity of small laboratories to perform the tests had been sacrificed in the creation of PHE's favoured mega labs in the period since 2010 and third it was decided to test patients who were presenting with clear symptoms of COVID19 who were being admitted to hospital. This latter factor was a very questionable decision as patients were displaying symptoms that required similar treatment pathways regardless of whether they were infected with COVID19 or some other condition - it might have been more efficient to initially assume COVID19 infection for the safety of both staff and patients and then release the tests for track and trace while the number of infections was low and increasing rather than past its peak and decreasing. Sadly, the eventual strategy decision was delayed beyond the point where a South Korean approach was possible using our existing resources.
As for the SARS pandemic in 2003, the lessons were learned at the time and when threatened with a Swine Flu pandemic in 2009 the government were very quickly out of the blocks with their advance preparations - these included the recall of recently retired staff to boost numbers for provision of increased testing, contact tracing and, if necessary, nursing support on wards. I had previously been working for the Northern and Yorkshire Cancer Screening Programme and was contacted at the time to help out in Newcastle but, as it happened, the disease spread was nipped in the bud at a very early stage and the planned measures were not needed. Unfortunately the lessons of SARS appear to have since been forgotten.

 

Coronavirus: Why are some people testing positive more than once?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/healt...e-some-people-testing-positive-more-than-once

 

I've been to the Humber Bridge testing facility today .
Bloody hell you got to go around a long circuit!
Get stopped about 5 times .
They show you lots of messages on cards then pass a test kit into your car
You then drive around further and do the self test with instruction s in a package which someone will help but need your windows closed .
Put in a sealed bag then drive to somebody else and put in collection bin .

 

Will it be widely available ?
When can we expect to have the tests ready for the larger public ?
Will it be a multi company/University roll out ?

 

Key workers is a bit loose though .
I help produce food labels and I'm apparently a key worker but dont consider myself one !
It would be medical workers 1st then care then maybe transport and supermarket workers etc

 

Fair enough
I hope you’re right of course

 

Stopped 5 times! Where you speeding? HCC will have to name a bridge after you

 

Yeah it's a multi process ivwas quite surprised

 

The potential nightmare situation might be for two (or even more) different vaccines to become available. NICE or its current equivalent would throw a wobbly trying to decide which one to recommend - cost benefit analysis would be required, then the mysterious tendering process ….eek.

 

A valiant suggestion, though for the infrastructure to work all keyworkers should have the opportunity to be tested. Also not just those showing signs, a friend who works for an NHS Trust has a colleague who had been working very closely with another member of staff who had just tested positive, however the person working closely with them has been denied testing as they are not showing any signs (yet), the type of shortsighted policies the recent changes I had hoped had changed...

 

Getting a vaccine available looks doable according to some companies marketers, getting one that works is another question altogether though.

 

I think he did that in the end - he has a relative in his house who is one of the people who has to isolate due a health condition, he was more pissed off with the Jobsworths responses not to test his colleague

 

Did you just turn up, and did they do the nose and throat swabs?

 

It was for the missus via work coz she works for care home .
No you book a time slot online and recieve an e mail with one of those Q scan things .
When you get there they scan it through your window