“There needs to be really clear and immediate messaging from government around which test [people should] act on. My very clear advice would be that if you have a respiratory infection, stay at home because you’re going to pass it on.”
“But if you’ve got symptoms of a respiratory infection and a lateral flow test that’s positive, I would be working on the assumption that it’s Covid-19 regardless of the PCR result at the moment.”
“That message needs to be made clear, which then buys time for the Department of Health and UKHSA to do a quality audit of the PCR testing process and try to find out where the issue may be.”
Re the possibility of a new variant McNally believes another explanation is more likely: “If we rule out a new strain and we rule out cross-reactivity, that points to something within the PCR testing process.
“It could be anywhere from the swab being taken, to the test being done, to the result being disseminated.
“I would hope that someone is looking on a lab-by-lab basis at the results and the data that they are producing.”
Whilst early reports have been concentrated around the SW GPS from Birmingham and Oxford have flagged up similar issues
Prof @brisoliver also flags up the anomalies in the proportion of LFT receiving a positive PCR confirmation dropping and at a time when ONS surveillance confirms continuing high prevalence.
Worth adding this, given it seems the Guardian did not trouble to check whether their representation of @bealelab opinion was accurate re the likelihood of cross reactivity issues ⬇️⬇️⬇️
@John_Cotter Rather decent of him to sink “Frosty” & his insincere claims of “good faith” - and just hours he made the claim- right in it for the whole world to see - including the EU and their lawyers.
“The policy says: “Instant messaging is provided to all staff and should be used in preference to email for routine communications where there is no need to retain a record of the communication.”
“Instant messages history in individual and group chats must be switched off and should not be retained once a session is finished.”
The rotten decision making preceded the Covid pandemic…and countries like Singapore IMPLEMENTED OUR flu pandemic plan with far FAR greater success…imperfect but FAR better
Because they ACTED on it
And had resourced PH to do so..& gave it clout
But which of us thinks giving the likes of Jenny Harries MORE clout would have made a difference?
It wasn’t more clout she needed but a massive kick up the arse from a political leader who was going to put saving lives and health and well-being at the heart of the response
Yet here we are 18 mnths later, post 3 lockdowns of sorts, Alpha then Delta variants increasing the risks & worsening the odds, 45 mill+ fully vaccinated
163,500 Covid deaths (by date of death): deaths & hospitalisations still piling up.
And a Government even sloppier than at the beginning.
The second and third/ fourth waves are unequivocally on Johnson. His choice against scientific advice.
How very Johnson to absent himself from the country when the Select Committee report is published.
In China, in the early days of the pandemic it was established that about 21% of (mostly elderly) admissions had a history of diabetes but a further c20% were diagnosed on admission.
Was Coronavirus precipitating diabetes or were these people with it previously but undiagnosed?
“The precise mechanisms for new-onset diabetes in people with COVID-19 are not known, but it is likely that a number of complex interrelated processes are involved”
These include
📌previously undiagnosed diabetes,
📌stress hyperglycemia,
📌steroid-induced hyperglycemia, and
📌direct or indirect effects of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) on the b-cell.