Get testing right

Carl Heneghan of Oxford University has publicly stated that the testing system in the UK is showing a high rate of false positives. We are treating tested positive ‘cases’ like infectious cases, when they are not all infectious. From what I understand as well as infectious cases the test also picks up cases where people either have had the virus, have a low viral load or are asymptomatic which could account for the high cases and low hospital admissions. It makes no sense to me to use data from a testing system that is producing so many false positives. The inventor of the PCR test said that this test should not be used to diagnose infectious disease and Carl Heneghan, from what I understand, said a reduction in the amplification process when looking for RNA can reduce the number of false positives in these tests. Apparently the amplification cycles that are being used (up to 45) allow the test pick up the tiniest amounts of virus (and dead virus) and reducing the cycles vastly decrease the number of false positives. So my suggestion is a consistent country wide amplification top line, and also give us context by telling us how many people have died as well as cases.

Why the contribution is important

As above

by DLMc on October 11, 2020 at 12:27PM

Current Rating

Average rating: 5.0
Based on: 1 vote

Comments

Log in or register to add comments and rate ideas

Idea topics