Thread by @FangGhoulU

So, as I said, fully one-third of the students in my class have tested positive for #coronavirus this week. According to the university's statistics for the week ending on 9 October, we have had an 8.6% positivity rate-- among those tested ox.ac.uk/coronavirus/st…

But, of course, the university's misnamed "early response service" is still restricting testing to those who have one of the major #COVID19 symptoms or have been in close contact with someone with proven #COVID19.
This strategy disregards asymptomatic/presymptomatic spreaders

My former employer-- a small private liberal arts college in the US-- is carrying out blanket & on-demand testing 2 to 3 times per week among all staff and students; has quarantine dorm dedicated for those who test positive; has set up delivery meal plans & food service in dorms

It's not an Ivy League university-- just a run-of-the-mill small liberal arts college with a relatively low international student population, but these are the measures they are taking to keep staff and students safe.
Testing only those with symptoms is a public health failure

And yet, here at Oxford, with its high numbers of international students, poorly-ventilated historic buildings used both as student quarters and teaching rooms/faculty offices, and large public dining halls, we being told that we can only get tests if we already have symptoms...

or have been in "close contact" with someone who has had a positive test.
Meanwhile, entire Chinese cities are being tested in the span of only a few days when as few as a dozen positive cases crop up. bbc.co.uk/news/world-asi…

Our national "track and trace" system is a Tory boondoggle & a farce, w/ executives from Tory-allied Boston Consulting Group (BCG) being paid day rates of around £7,000 to run a system that has cleared failed at a national level news.sky.com/story/coronavi…

And, as @DanCardenMP of Liverpool put it, "under the cover of this pandemic, billions of public money handed to faceless corporations, inc. Tory-linked firms, w/out competition or transparency, w/out democratic accountability...

This is "money that should have been...building up properly-funded public services that we can all rely on in the future. But instead it was siphoned off" to the tune of £12 billion "to #Serco for this failing test & trace system..."

"with Conservative Baronness & business executive #DidoHarding appointed as the head" of this non-functioning system; "#Serco's CEO, the brother of a former Tory MP. And Tory MPs on the boards of companies winning contracts.." #ToryCorruption

"And if you've got a problem with this, why not take it up with the Govt's 'Anti-Corruption Champion,' #DidoHarding's husband." This is #disastercapitalism at its most inhumane. This is what @Keir_Starmer needs to be exposing at #PMQs.

https://twitter.com/DanCardenMP/status/1316450525114753024?s=20