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Bigbob
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Ive been watching the Covid daily whilst in  the man cave knitting nets and they have only hit the 100, 000 tests daily twice they fall far short every day but what gets me is ive heard of people getting a kit in the post with no return address and being told to bin it , These are being counted as every kit sent out is counted and they allow for folk ordering a kit and not returning it ????

Is it just another con ?.

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11 minutes ago, Bigbob said:

Ive been watching the Covid daily whilst in  the man cave knitting nets and they have only hit the 100, 000 tests daily twice they fall far short every day but what gets me is ive heard of people getting a kit in the post with no return address and being told to bin it , These are being counted as every kit sent out is counted and they allow for folk ordering a kit and not returning it ????

Is it just another con ?.

No idea about the no return address and bin it idea. But. With regards the kits being sent out, once they are in the post, its then fact the government have met their target, its then the responsibility of the receiver to ensure they do the rest.

Another CON. implies there as been some sort of Con at least one and the word ANOTHER. TWO CONS. No idea what you mean by that.

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on the flip side, there are empty testing stations all over the country

you can only test the people who turn up, if they dont turn up what can you do?

people are told to go get tested if they are in certain groups and have shown symptoms

i qualify for a test because i can go to work (construction) but have not shown any symptoms, so im not going to get tested

so i think capacity is there or thereabouts, but they need to loosen the restrictions on who gets tested

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1 minute ago, eggy74 said:

on the flip side, there are empty testing stations all over the country

you can only test the people who turn up, if they dont turn up what can you do?

people are told to go get tested if they are in certain groups and have shown symptoms

i qualify for a test because i can go to work (construction) but have not shown any symptoms, so im not going to get tested

so i think capacity is there or thereabouts, but they need to loosen the restrictions on who gets tested

And perhaps "sanction" those who book a test and then fail to turn up

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8 minutes ago, eggy74 said:

on the flip side, there are empty testing stations all over the country

you can only test the people who turn up, if they dont turn up what can you do?

 

An optimist could see the lower numbers of good news. If fewer people are turning up because there are fewer people with symptoms then this is good news.

Perhaps the government could be a bit more savvy and for instance say "we tested 65,000 yesterday and 35,000 other available tests were not taken up "

 

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22 minutes ago, TRINITY said:

An optimist could see the lower numbers of good news. If fewer people are turning up because there are fewer people with symptoms then this is good news.

I'm sure there was something on the news this morning saying that NHS staff aren't getting tested the same because many have been tested and had no symptoms since, I could well be wrong.

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I just think its funny they cant hit the numbers then you hear about kits getting sent out with no return address so bin it and suddenly there hitting the magical figure 

Who came up with the idea there hitting 100,000 a day if they just  send  that amount of kits out anyway ?

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11 minutes ago, Raja Clavata said:

Sounds like the Roche anti-body test has just been approved by PHE, that's great news.

Indeed.   Its kind of still on topic here , but it feels very strange us all being guinea pigs in a massive world wide experiment where we really do not know what works what wont and no idea how it will all work out of how many in the world will die in this before we get to grips with it, And that is if we ever do.

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5 hours ago, lancer425 said:

a massive world wide experiment where we really do not know what works what wont and no idea how it will all work out of how many in the world will die in this before we get to grips with it

In a sense, that is what it is.  I say 'in a sense' because I don't believe it was initiated on purpose, which 'experiments' usually are.  We don't know how to act to reduce the impact and get life back (as close as it can ever be) to normal.  In some places (e.g. New Zealand) they have apparently been successful, but different countries have different challenges for a whole host of reasons (travel habits, social habits, culture, population density, demographics, medical facilities etc.).

There is no existing knowledge either from past experience, or proven science to define the 'correct' actions ........ hence the 'experimental' element you mention.

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1 minute ago, Bigbob said:

will help who has had the virus and can go back to work

There are tow types of test;

  1. Do I currently have the virus (actively even if asymptomatic)?
  2. Do I have the antibodies that would be present if I have previously had the virus - this is only just approved (yesterday in the UK I think)

I think that relates to the new 'antibody test' (approve by Public Health England yesterday) which tells if you have had the virus in the past (probably up to 2 or 3 years or more)

The testing they are doing and have done to date is whether you currently have the virus.  The issue here seems to be the infrastructure to support testing (which was set up in a huge hurry) is a bit flaky.  Some 'drive in' test places seem to have lots of spare capacity and there seem to be issues over where to send home done tests (i.e. where to post them to).

The antibody test is by Roche, and I understand uses a piece of equipment to analyse the test samples (swabs?) which is already in use in many hospitals/medical labs.  I don't know if this piece of kit would be present in Universities?

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2 hours ago, JohnfromUK said:

<snip>

The antibody test is by Roche, and I understand uses a piece of equipment to analyse the test samples (swabs?) which is already in use in many hospitals/medical labs.  I don't know if this piece of kit would be present in Universities?

If the one I saw on the news was a prototype then it’s not a lab test but field test where you have a plastic tray with 2 holes, one of which is for a sample and the other for a reagent. I use a similar thing for foul brood testing in bees.

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1 hour ago, SpringDon said:

If the one I saw on the news was a prototype then it’s not a lab test but field test where you have a plastic tray with 2 holes, one of which is for a sample and the other for a reagent. I use a similar thing for foul brood testing in bees.

I think that may be a different one?  The Roche one I believe you take a sample of blood on something (bit like a diabetes sugar measuring sample I think) which is then put in a machine for 'developing/reading' and takes about 18 minutes (from the report I read).  Details appear to be here  https://www.roche.com/media/releases/med-cor-2020-04-17.htm

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Just now, SpringDon said:

Fair enough, the thing I saw on the news must have been stock medical footage.

I think there are various potential ones 'in the pipeline' awaiting approval, but as I understand it - only the Roche one is currently approved.

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The antibody test is like a pregnancy test but uses blood instead of urine, you get a bit of blood on the test surface, activate it with the supplied fluid and the test results appear in the "window" above where you deposit the sample. First line indicates a valid sample has been provided and other lines indicate the test outcomes.

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