Thread by @deeksj

Testing in schools saga - again

What is the explanation behind this from @educationgovuk? Why has the @MHRAgovuk said DfE does not need regulatory approval for daily “assisted testing” given it does not approve daily “self testing” of contacts of infected cases in schools?

Daily self-testing of contacts was not approved because MHRA considered that the test misses too many cases, allowing infected and infectious individuals to remain in class. The MHRA would have come to this decision based on a forensic and balanced assessment of the evidence.

Hopefully somebody can help answer why this does not also apply to “assisted testing”. I can think of three different explanations. There may be more.

1) There is some data somewhere which shows that “assisted testing” improves the ability of the Innova test to detect infection compared to “self testing” which makes is safe. If this data exists we haven’t seen it.

2) By stating that testing is part of "an evaluation" this means the test is being used for "research use" which is allowed. If this is the case, appropriate information and consent appears not to have been sent to children, parents, schools and teachers.

3) That the MHRA is legally not allowed to comment on “assisted testing” as it was asked to assess Innova only as a “self test” and legally cannot comment outside this brief. If this is the case this is using a legal argument not a scientific argument to implement testing.

Are there other options? Which one is true? There must be some experts on regulation reading this who can comment. Time for journalists to investigate further.

If (2) or (3) is true then we have a regulatory system that is unfit to protect the public which needs a fixing.