Test test test, I must attest I can't GET A TEST!
September 8th, 2020. London, UK
It’s the latest edition of the Covilicious Times, Autumnal Edition #1
HELLO EVERYONE. I think it’s pretty much been established that the UK has been really way way back in the list for effective testing for this Coronavirus. There was a bit of hope when a gentleman called Mr Hancock said three months ago (see way below in this blog) that the testing system was up to capacity of 200,000 tests or more per day for the virus itself. This included Home Kits (with a 40-50% success rate that these in fact worked at all), Drive in Centres (which could take up to 8 days to get any results back), and hospitals and care staff where hopefully, you could be tested when needed, and patients only with Covid symptoms were allowed a test.
Now it seems in doubt the numbers of places up and down the country, either you have to drive over 100 miles to get tested, OR, er, well, OR NOTHING. The UK Testing system has broken down totally. Often they have RUN OUT OF TESTS. Obviously, Dominic forgot to order them from Ocado. Oh and that applies to the Drive-In sites too, which have become Unavailable up and down the land (see below).
This is all rather distressing as six months ago, Test Test Test was the International mantra.
Ah well, and the Abbott/Roche antibody test (the reliable one) is only available PRIVATELY (shape of things to come?) with finger prick variations still not distributed across the UK. It’s all a bit dreary and with the Next Wave expected in the UK now as Universities and Schools go back, and as people come back from their holidays to be greeted with increasingly confused quarantine conditions here in the UK, with still no testing at airports, unlike most of Europe, testing (let’s not get started on the UK’s pretty awful Test and Trace, where the app is “still being readied”), is going to continue to be the only way to control this outbreak.
The first mass Antibody University study in the UK came back two weeks ago to suggest that 96% people of the 100,000 who tested positive for Covid-19 had sufficient antibodies to perhaps last a few months, rather like the current flu vaccines introduced annually (I’m about to get mine next week). So, fingers crossed…
https://www.imperial.nhs.uk/about-us/news/largest-home-antibody-testing-publishes-results
The UK’s specially commissioned Antibody test (finger prick/20 minutes) is called the AbC-19 rapid test, and it’s been developed by Abingdon Health in the UK. Similar Tests have been used in the US and China for several months but are said to not have the same sensitivity or accuracy. These are being “rolled out” at 500,000/month from October, and the test showed very low rates of false negatives and false positives, with a sensitivity of 98.03% and a specificity of 99.56%. Hoo flipping ray. But medical professionals need to actually give the test. Right? So hopefully, get down to yer GP and everybody grab one I say.
Worldwide, infections are rocketing in certain countries. On the 7th September, INDIA was announcing over 75,000 infections a day with over 1000 deaths, USA 25,000 with nearly 300 deaths, and in Europe, the “spikes” have started to happen in terms of infection rates. France over 4,000/day, UK up to 3,000/day, Spain 2,500/day with everywhere in South America seeing thousands of new infections daily.
Sep 7th 2020