Testing....

[Davy51]

We hear all these fanciful figures & dates bandied about for testing the population & testing stations set up in far flung places that are underused ,probably because people can't always get to them.

Surely,testing would be simpler if individual kits were distributed to home addresses for individual self testing. Completed & safely contained equipment could then be returned to neighbourhood  safety collection points for overnight collection & transfer to covid labs. Check names against a register at the lab & Bob's your uncle. Mass testing.

[Confused52]

I have heard they are developing exactly that kit at the moment as well as sending kits for staff testing at the hospitals where they work.

[asperity]

So they perfect a test that gives an instant result. You are tested clear of the virus, go out and get infected. You think you're clear, the system says you're clear, but you're now a carrier. Would someone please explain what this call for mass testing is meant to achieve?

[Evil Sid]

A complete data base of every bodies DNA for future reference, According to at least one conspiracy theorist.....🕵️‍♀️

[asperity]

Makes sense Sid 😵.

[Davy51]

I think the idea  is also to tell the powers that be who has had the virus & recovered from it naturally without medical treatment.

[asperity]

That's all very well Davy, but if you get tested and it comes back negative do you get tested every day until it comes back positive?

[Davy51]

The idea is also to tell who has developed antibodies, i believe.

[Evil Sid]

Currently they do not have a reliable test for that yet.

The only testing being done is to see if you have it or not.

[Observer II]

When they finally get organised with  efficient tests; there will be one to identify those who have been infected,  as many show no symptoms, yet can still infect others - so they need to be isolated.  The other test is for anti-bodies in those that have been infected and survived.  They don't know yet whether folk can catch it again. They are trying the possibility of taking anti-bodies in serum form from a survivor and transfering it to those who haven't developed immunity.   The benefits of these tests will allow a mass of data to identify who is safe to mix in the community, like key workers and eventually they'll start contact tracing to completely eliminate spreaders.  Think that's the theory anyway:   the problem may arise with a so-called second wave, maybe in the next flu season and this will be exacerbated in the event of a premature easing of the lock down, in which case we'd be back to square one.  There are already claims that there are now eight strains of this virus, as it has now mutated.  The mobile app, being used by China and S/Korea  could help in tracing transmission,  but the human rights brigade will no doubt scotch that.        😷

[Confused52]

2 minutes ago, Evil Sid said:

Currently they do not have a reliable test for that yet.

The only testing being done is to see if you have it or not.

Sid, the anti-body serology test done at PHE on Down is reliable and is being used to test the accuracy of commercial pin-prick testing kits, which have all failed. There is community testing in the so called Pillar 4 to test groups at random to check the extent of anti-bodies showing past infection with samples from anonymised donors. These are now shown in the daily figures and as of yesterday they had done 4,892 tests but we don't know the results.

[Confused52]

6 minutes ago, Observer II said:

When they finally get organised with  efficient tests; there will be one to identify those who have been infected,  as many show no symptoms, yet can still infect others - so they need to be isolated.  The other test is for anti-bodies in those that have been infected and survived.  They don't know yet whether folk can catch it again. They are trying the possibility of taking anti-bodies in serum form from a survivor and transfering it to those who haven't developed immunity.   The benefits of these tests will allow a mass of data to identify who is safe to mix in the community, like key workers and eventually they'll start contact tracing to completely eliminate spreaders.  Think that's the theory anyway:   the problem may arise with a so-called second wave, maybe in the next flu season and this will be exacerbated in the event of a premature easing of the lock down, in which case we'd be back to square one.  There are already claims that there are now eight strains of this virus, as it has now mutated.  The mobile app, being used by China and S/Korea  could help in tracing transmission,  but the human rights brigade will no doubt scotch that.        😷

There have been a number of small mutations for a while denoted by a suffix letter but my current understanding is that none of them have changed sufficiently to prevent a vaccine working or to cause them to present different symptoms. There is apparently a high likelihood of mutations because of the way the virus reproduces quickly in each infection. There is also proof from China that some of the so called re-infections are nothing of the sort since some patients changed from negative to positive whilst still is quarantine. There seems to be a mechanism, also seen with other viruses, that those with week immune systems represent positive but it is not known whether they are infectious yet - they are truing to work it out. The upshot is that one needs to avoid jumping to conclusions based on what the MSM tries to frighten us with. The survivors serum story is true and worked for ebola, it is being tested in the UK too in a controlled trial.