Thread by @ScienceShared

So, you've all seen the rising cases and hospitalisations, you've seen the local lockdowns, you've seen that social gatherings are reduced to 6, and we are now spiralling towards another national lockdown in the winter.

What can we do?

Find, test, trace, isolate, support.👇

We are seeing the start of the COVID second wave. But important to remember this isn’t weather forecasting – it’s not a storm that will hit regardless. It’s an infection that we can largely suppress with an effective and robust FTTIS, coupled with *some* social distancing.
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Symptomatics get tested by making testing easy to access (localised) & through trusted sources (GPs).

Even when the test system was functioning we weren't finding nearly all symptomatic cases.
Now, symptomatics cant get a test. This is a shambles.
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But apart from encouraging symptomatics to get tested, how do we actually find more cases?

Testing –
Ideally, testing should be done with <24h turnaround & performed locally, utilising local and mobile labs, & setting up in community spaces too.
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Testing can be made 10 times more efficient (overnight) by using pooled qPCR.
Saliva samples, & other innovative testing strategies like lamPORE & rapid at-home kits are contentious but have huge potential.
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thelancet.com/journals/lanin…

As well as assisting with the diagnosis of symptomatic cases, testing can also help find cases. By increasing our efforts to do mass screening in outbreak areas, we can go a long way to suppressing outbreaks & avoiding the need for lockdowns.

But, it's a bloody big job.
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SAGE produced a pretty excellent document on mass testing. Mass testing is complex and needs to be led by experts.
The government today set out its operation 'moonshot,' plan for mass testing, which is going to be run by an accounting firm & hasn't had input from scientists...
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This mass testing debate isn't going to go away.

Hancock, Harding, Whitty, Vallance + more, and independent experts, should have to come before the Health Select committee BEFORE mass testing is rolled out.
We need some level of accountability in our democracy again.
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Tracing – Contact tracing is critical to breaking the chains of transmission. This should be done by local public health teams, who are well trained and know the area and the people. Atm, the average number of contacts given to tracers is 2, and many aren’t reached.
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In Senegal (& China & elsewhere), they offer isolated accommodation to anyone who needs it.
We could do this too (hotels), & it would go a long way to preventing spread within multigenerational households, where transmission often occurs.

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Out of all the countries in Europe, the UK is at the very bottom of paying sick pay for isolation.
If we don’t invest in support systems which enable people to isolate, all the rest will be in vain.
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As well as financial support ensuring sick pay and ensuring no discrimination comes from employers, we also need to ensure healthcare professionals can check up on those with symptoms. Currently, you can go through symptoms, test, 'recover', with no contact with a doctor.
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Given the potential for things to turn south quickly, and the damaging effects of long COVID, it is important to monitor people with symptoms, both to help them recover but also to better understand long COVID in general.
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Politicians & senior medical officers in the gov have said people have "relaxed too much" over the summer.

This ignores that over the summer the UK has failed to set up a solid Test Trace Isolate that would have monitored & tackled the situation before it got out of hand. Again

Political pressure can give us a more effective FTTIS system, whereas it can't speed up a vaccine trial.

Please forward this thread to your local MP.

Lives, the economy, hugging your friends, going to a rave, the gym, the pub, & most fun things, depends on it.