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"Easier for PCR products"
Kinda has to be working for PCR, otherwise how was it picked up they had covid ?
Good post, useful, thanks Aldebaran.
https://twitter.com/michaelmina_lab/status/1463604143348752387?t=G7_g-kXYKrydbZ-8g-Y-7Q&s=19
Rapid tests back in fashion
and this time customers have to isoate until they get result - won’t be popular - I know a few people who have trips in December, already paid for LFT - can’t get a refund and now having to buy pcr (£45 each) as well as isolate until they get result.
Blades38 you actually can't 100 percent confirm a variant with PCR. They will send some of the positive sample for next gen sequencing to do that
But of course lab based PFC testing will simply not be able to cope with the demand from the millions of passengers flying every day - surely no one has forgotten the chaos the last time - whilst the airways remain open LFT have to be the main test - followed up by a PCR test if positive as I believe was the case before Omicron but perhaps you will be required to self isolate until you test negative. As I understand it and accepting I am no scientist LFT (including our own)work by detecting the spike protein which is common to all variants - they do not identify which variant, I am sure that if I am wrong I can rely on those in the field to correct me.
LFT testing will obviously not be replaced by PCR testing, demand for both will increase as more new cases increase. PCR testing, though much more expensive simply has more accuracy so is often used as an extra layer of security to confirm cases and variants (used after a positive LFT tests). Some PCR tests can be used to detect virus strains.
Regarding Omicron...
"Several labs have indicated that for one widely used PCR test, one of the three target genes is not detected (called S gene dropout or S gene target failure) and this test can therefore be used as marker for this variant, pending sequencing confirmation. Using this approach, this variant has been detected at faster rates than previous surges in infection, suggesting that this variant may have a growth advantage."
I suggest that they are switching initially to PCR for air travel so they can differentiate between the Delta and the Omicron variants - as the LFTs do not.
Let's also hope that not only does the VISITECT test, but also the current Gov supplied LFT's, detect the new variant - if not then not only do the UK Gov have an issue (and a $hitload of even more useless chinese tests to bin), so will most other countries - and a load of Omicron "friendly" LFT's may be needed.
Who said the pandemic was over, this latest variant should show that a UK diagnostic capability is even more essential, unfortunately the UK Gov have fallen far short - if Boris and the DHSC do come back looking for capacity then I hope that UK manufacturers call the shots with decent contracts and legally binding guarantees going forward.
Thank you tecbadger
Im presuming they want to detect the pacific omicron strain hence why using PCR for now so they can monitor how many cases ect
PD will at some stage get round to testing the LFTs and they will concentrate on the ones the HMG have a large stockpile off,or have large committments to purchase."
..only IF those LFTs actually pick up this new varaint.If they don't they could well be ditched.
There will be more varaints in the future as well.We need to be thinking more of the longer term implications for the diagnostics industry that C19 has brought upon it.Testing,of many different types,both pro and self-use,has just become a whole different ball game.We are at pre-covid levels but the world has changed since then,the industry has ballooned and ODX is a completely different company with a much larger outlook and market than it had pre-covid.Non-covid side of its business is blossoming,nothing at all priced in here for ANY covid rvenues.Testing and pandemics/endemics are here to stay,ODX will only grow and become more profitable as time goes by.They will,hopefully,learn from their mistakes.
It's not possible to know 100 percent but you can provide a pretty good estimation using in silico analysis where you analyse the sequence data of the variant and model it against your product.
Easier for PCR products as you can directly see if your primers are impacted by the sequence change. With an LFT you would have to model the change in the protein structure and assess whether it would still bind to your antibodies.
Several companies have announced already that based on in silicon analysis their products will still work.
twatcher - that will probably be post of the day for me. spot on.
How the hell would anyone know that at this stage ? With only around 100 cases world wide, likely the manufacturers of all the 100s of LFT tests out there are asking the same thing.
It's the reason why UK gov immediately stopped using LFTs for travel, they have no idea whether Orient Gene/ Flowflex/Surescreen etc pick it up. They know PCR testing does.
PD will at some stage get round to testing the LFTs, and they will concentrate on the ones the HMG have a large stockpile off, or have large commitments to purchase.
unknown at present - someone posted on Twitter that ours focuses on the N-protein so hypothetically should be ok but until Mologic confirm, its an unknown.
Morning , does anybody know weather the Vistect test detects the new variant the same as the current variants ?