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... will we still need to test?
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/uk-faces-100000-covid-cases-24306928
I wonder if it’ll be like my smoke alarms that sometimes peep when there’s no smoke? Or when the battery runs low.
Guess that means everyone has to isolate as the implication is people have been infected. Pretty crap if it happens in a board meeting / conference / event / theatre / restaurant / venue / pub / club where people could’ve tested BEFORE they entered...
Porton Down, like most Public Sector organisations, is probably incapable of moving with the times. Tied up in bureaucracy and bogus processes, not having to worry about revenue and commercial viability.
Why on Earth have they treated sampling like they have, I have no idea. I could understand if it were the earliest days of the pandemic and there was a risk of releasing the virus into the general population. But it was already seeded on a global scale! They should’ve gotten their staff in to points of care to sample directly. Those live samples could’ve been assessed on the spot and follow-up PCR tests turned around in hours...
I’ve said before, this is a global problem that needs industrial solutions. The dithering at PD and dogmatically sticking to their procedures has likely cost lives.
Exactly, Mowzer.
What baffles me most now is the seeming lack of flexibility or impetus. If there were indeed issues at PD, why have those masterminds not found another way to validate tests?
With cases on the rise and local surge testing in place, if I were the head of PD I’d order a job lot of AffiDX and get my agents out in the field to conduct tests using live samples! How much easier does it get than that? No level 4 labs, no restrictive protocols...
Of course it’s the public sector and time ? money. More important to protect your department and the procedures it has developed...
Just my hunch.
I was thinking about what to do with mine. Previously I was of the opinion that every test registered was confirmation that this was a viable method of controlling the pandemic. And that could only bode well for Avacta. Now I’m thinking about binning them.
Thoughts?
I wouldn’t be surprised if it went something along the lines of:
Boris: “Ok Matt, we’ve got this American company selling tests and they’ve plenty of them. Reasonably priced but we’ve got to make sure they work. Over to you...”
Hanc ock: “Right you are, Boss. As it happens, I’ve already had a tip off about these guys. I reckon we can get a sizeable order in ASAP. But it’ll have to be tested first. It’ll be fine though - they claim to have validated them and we have to take that on trust. And there’s plenty available to purchase, as you say”
Boris: “Right. Well send a batch to Porton Down anyway to dot the i and cross the t etc”
MH: “Right away// Hello, is that Porton Down? I need you to validate some Innova tests...”
PD: “Will that involve samples of the virus? Uhuh. Well, that’ll all have to be done here... no, we can’t send operatives out into the field to test on site. This is the leading testing centre in the U.K. We know what we’re doing... no, you can’t just go and validate tests in hospitals - everything has to come through here. We are the authority.... absolutely not. We will accept frozen positive samples, however. That’s the protocol.... No, it doesn’t matter if that affects the outcome - them’s the rules. OUR rules.”
MH: “Bloody hell. Fine! Just get the Innova tests through - ASAP!”
Cautious - when committing £Billions of taxpayers, the Govt is Duty bound to ensure what it orders is fit for purpose. There is no excusing the monumental fudge up here. If the FDA could investigate and find fraud, so could we.
The question that now needs to be asked is WHY didn’t we?
They need to update the products website page:
Disclaimer: The AffiDX® SARS-CoV-2 rapid antigen test is currently registered for Professional use in the UK market only.
That can now read ‘U.K. and EU only’. And presumably with due process being one of Avacta’s USPS, talks are ongoing with the FDA / Mologic.
I’m seeing little benefit of the PD testing process now the virus has seeded around the world. Mutations will be an ongoing problem but the best way to evaluate the accuracy of our test will be to have it at points of care all over the world. This is not an unfeasible scenario moving forward.
And what if genomic sequencing? How was our test developed in the first place? We can be pretty confident the right Affimer can be brewed just as soon as a new variant of concern emerges. Drop it into a test, evaluate with live samples, rinse and repeat.
If we want to stay ahead of the virus, this is how quickly the system will need to adapt to mutations. We (the U.K.) don’t have the luxury of waiting for months on end to jump through all the PD hoops. The virus isn’t novel anymore. An industrial response to a global problem is required now.
Malpenn - I think I recall reading that.
However, there now seems little point in going to the effort of transporting samples all the way to PD just to analyse them in the manner they’re perhaps not intended to be. ‘Professional use’ means trained swabbers. With Covid patients coming through the doors with greater frequency, we should be running live trials rather than jumping through pointless DHSC hoops and bogus processes.
What is the point of PD when you can use live samples at point of care, confirmed by PCR.
For all the governmental bureaucracy and dithering at PD, Avacta are now in a position where they can supply hospitals with their tests and conduct a trial on Covid wards. No need for the secrecy, smoke and mirrors of PD - just give the tests to the nurses when people are admitted. There will soon be plenty more.
If a PoC trial demonstrates AffiDx accuracy in real-world conditions, there’s really no point going through PD is there?
You’d hope this is what we’re pushing for now our product has gone live. What another embarrassment that would turn out to be for the Govt!