![]() ![]() In a mass testing situation, said Deeks, among 10,000 people with a prevalence rate of 0.5%, similar to now, you would expect 50 people to have Covid. They create both false negative results – when people are wrongly told they are not infected, and also false positives, when people will unnecessarily be instructed to self-isolate, which could mean they cannot work. The tests, he said, “will probably detect about half the cases”. People would go back into the community and be socially mixing. “You can’t do such a test for test-to-release or test-to-enable,” said Deeks. The team identify three possible uses of the tests: testing to detect infection testing to release people from self-isolation or quarantine and testing to enable them to go to school, work or an event. “We have no data on the accuracy of these tests in children.” There have been no studies on the use of the tests in schoolchildren with no symptoms, he said. “So I personally find that quite shocking – the government thinking that’s an adequate evidence base upon which to base such a large, expensive and quite invasive policy for people to follow,” he said. ![]() The Liverpool pilot project showed the test found 40% of people with Covid, and in a very small study he conducted in students at the university, it picked up just 3%.Ībout 40m of the tests have been given out, he said, but in those two studies a total of just 78 people were identified as having Covid. For Innova, said Jon Deeks, professor of biostatistics at the University of Birmingham and one of the authors, there are only two studies. Little data exists to show how well the tests perform when the person has no symptoms. ![]() In people with symptoms, SD Biosensor, which has been approved by the World Health Organization, picked up 88% of infections, while the Innova test, used very widely in the UK since mass testing in Liverpool, picked up 58%. But in people with no symptoms, that drops to 58%.īut there were big differences between brands. However, a Cochrane review, carried out by a team of international, independent experts, has found that rapid antigen tests – known as lateral flow – correctly identify on average 72% of people who are infected with the virus and have symptoms and 78% within the first week of becoming ill. “Regular testing of people without symptoms is important to help stop the virus spreading and protect your loved ones.” “About one in three people with coronavirus do not have symptoms but can still pass it on to others,” says government guidance. ![]()
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