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Boris Johnson’s ‘moonshot’ mass testing plan is not the way out of the coronavirus pandemic

2greys profile image
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UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced an ambitious “moonshot” plan to roll out mass population testing for COVID-19. Johnson said that, under the plan, the UK would process millions of tests a day, allowing those who test negative to resume their normal lives. The programme will cost around £100 billion, equivalent to two-thirds of the annual budget of the National Health Service.

Will it work? Unfortunately, mass population testing is a flawed idea in search of science to back it up. It is unlikely to be the solution that sees us out of this pandemic.

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2greys
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11 Replies
Superzob profile image
Superzob

Excellent, thought-provoking article

soul-123 profile image
soul-123

Scary stuff have really bad feelings about what will happen next !

O2Trees profile image
O2Trees

Think I smell Dominic Cummings at work here?

SquirrelsHolt profile image
SquirrelsHolt in reply to O2Trees

🐷 A pig of a politician and as sly as a 🦊 fox, as prickly as a 🦔 hedgehog and as creepy as a 🐜 soldier ant, as thick skinned as a 🐮 Rhino or an 🐘 elephant!!!(couldn't find a Cheetar or a Leopard sadly). I think you get my drift. Mr. Cummings is one of my top 100 blaggers so no real surprises for my outburst! Apologies to you O2Trees. Hope you are keeping yourself sway from any virus hot spots and are doing well? 🐿🌈

O2Trees profile image
O2Trees in reply to SquirrelsHolt

Im good Squirrel, hope you are too. You realise we arent allowed by the powers that be to be 'political' ?! But no apologies needed for me, Im sure you know i agree with every word. x

SquirrelsHolt profile image
SquirrelsHolt in reply to O2Trees

Oooops!! A bit of a "faux par" by me. Sorry everybody and sorry to HU. I'm guilty of typing before thinking !🐿🌈x

O2Trees profile image
O2Trees in reply to SquirrelsHolt

I think they dont respond as much to individual comments, more to actual posts. Im sure you're ok and very many will agree with you! I liked it anyway x

Badbessie profile image
Badbessie

The main problems are both money and the test. 1% of tests give a false positive. That means 60,000 people a week are going to need to be isolated plus their contacts. It would be reasonable to think that they have been in contact with 5 people so that is 300,000 people a week in isolation. So it takes 3 to 5 days to become infected so even if the people are tested on Monday and you on Wednesday the Monday people would still need to isolate because they could be still infected as the virus could still be there even if they were negetive. So I tested negative on Tuesday my daughter tested positive at the same time due to a false positive. Do I isolate? Because I could still be positive but not in amount in the blood to show up on the test. Of course then there are the people you continue the shed dead cells after having the virus who can remain positive due to that. Any bets it would be mass confusion?

we need less in the way of hyperbole.

Mavary profile image
Mavary

My thoughts are if you’ve only just been in contact with someone and you are going to get the virus it probably won’t show up in a test. Meaning you are out and about still spreading the virus.

Lfcpremier profile image
Lfcpremier

It is indisputable that to beat the virus we need to have a viable Test, track & trace.

We were promised a 'world beating one' but instead it is a shambles so therefore we must conclude we will not get the better of covid.

Sad to say any talk of a moonshine test is utter nonsense, a distraction from the current debacle.

Although the virus is on the rise again all over Europe if we look at Germany we see a system in place that has a good degree of control. Rates there are rising far more slowly. 😧

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