UK Government Faces Backlash Against Massive COVID-19 Test Program-Sources

London (Reuters)-Scientists and advisers are concerned about the spread of rapid testing, so the UK government plans to test the COVID-19 population to boost efforts to restart the economy. They are resisting, sources close to the test program said.

Boris Johnson is accelerating efforts to bring children back to school and revive their businesses in the face of increasing pressure to break out of Britain’s third blockade and criticism of dealing with a pandemic. I would like to.

A plan that has been under discussion in the government for some time tests a large population with the aim of reducing viral infections by finding and quarantining one in three asymptomatic COVID-19 people. Is to do. He said it was close to a test program.

However, the plan has been postponed by scientific and clinical experts and policy advisers, some of whom question whether rapid testing deficiencies outweigh the benefits, they said.

According to one source, the previous dates entered to start the national test are gone, and other sources are preparing for next month’s “just in case” test and follow-up program officials. However, he said it was doubtful if that would happen.

A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Health said the government saw “targeted asymptomatic tests” as a way to help “detect these cases and break the chain of infections,” and the minister is still moving to mass testing. Suggested not.

“Hundreds of thousands of lateral flow tests are conducted daily to prevent the spread of the virus, most of which are dedicated test sites for asymptomatic people in a variety of community environments, including universities, schools and long-term care facilities. It is carried out at the workplace. “

“Operation Moonshot”

Johnson praised Operation Moonshot in September, criticizing the perception that he was reluctant to implement measures promptly in response to COVID-19. This is a plan to expand the use of “lateral flow tests” that produce results within an hour.

He hopes that such tests will allow more people to come together, especially at Christmas, and their use will “make life closer to normal” by spring and during the summer. He said he was.

However, new, more infectious variants of COVID-19, first detected in southern England, complicated these plans.

Despite deploying vaccines against the virus faster than many other countries, the government is now struggling to prevent medical services from being overwhelmed by hundreds of new arrivals every day.

The UK, with the fifth highest death toll in the world, is also one of the most serious economic contractions on record.

Some governments say testing of the entire population can help contain the virus while the vaccine continues to be deployed. And the two together are considered the key to lifting the restrictions.

The Lateral Flow Test is already available to National Health Service (NHS) staff, long-term care facilities, schools, universities and universities, and is being rolled out to local governments. Some companies also participate in this system.

So far, more than 41,000 positive cases have been detected by rapid testing.

Missed positive

However, not everyone believes that mass testing is useful.

Mike Ryan, head of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) emergency program, said last year that extensive census is costly and impractical, even if testing for asymptomatic people is useful. It was.

Also, some scientists say that the lateral flow test has a high degree of specificity, so it is unlikely that a positive test result will be incorrect, but if the sensitivity is low, 50 of the positive cases % May be overlooked.

A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Health said the lateral flow test used by the government “passes rigorous evaluation by key national scientists.”

“These are effective in detecting coronavirus-infected cases, are easy to use, and give results in 30 minutes, so people who test positive can be quickly isolated.”

The government’s advice on self-testing with the lateral flow test states that “negative results do not rule out COVID-19 infection.”

Nonetheless, advocates conducting regular lateral flow tests in the population help identify the most infectious COVID-19 cases, especially in the workplace, and have a faster self-isolation to prevent local outbreaks. It states that it will be possible.

Didharding, head of the COVID-19 test and tracing system in the United Kingdom, did not have a perfect test, but the lateral flow test is speedy, easy to distribute, and capable of picking up asymptomatic cases. Because it was “very convenient”.

“Twice a week, once a week, once a week, the lateral flow test detects 75% of people with the disease and doesn’t know they have the disease,” she said in the UK. He spoke at an Industrial Federation event. This week’s industry.

“By doing so, we can break the chain of infections, prevent the spread of outbreaks in the workplace and communities, and help more parts of the economy recover faster.”