Member Info for Muck165

Pt2

Nasopharyngeal tests require a patient or healthcare professional to insert a swab up the person’s nose and apply it to the back of their throat. Saliva tests are less painful and invasive.

It is understood that home testing will form a central part of the strategy, with the department specifying that kits must be “packaged in a way that can fit through a standard UK letterbox”.

Saliva testing is in widespread use in Canada, which deploys the “swirl, gargle and spit” test for children. In Britain, community trials are under way in Salford and Southampton, while Heathrow has been involved in testing a rapid screening device that returns results within 20 seconds.

Here’s the full article..

Pt1

Coronavirus: Matt Han**** banks on saliva tests for Operation Moonshot lift-off.

Swirl, gargle and spit” saliva-based testing will be introduced as part of plans to check up to 4.5 million people a day for the coronavirus by December, according to official documents.

Boris Johnson has previously stated his intention to test millions of people daily by early next year as part of Operation Moonshot.

The programme, with a budget of up to £100bn, aims to detect virus outbreaks before they can spread, supporting “economic activity and a return to normal life”. Last week, the Department of Health and Social Care invited companies to submit proposals for the production of “circa 1.5 million swab collection kits per day”, as well as “circa 3.0 million saliva collection kits per day”. If delivered, the target would represent a 20-fold increase in the number of daily tests, which stands at about 230,000.

Saliva tests have medical advantages, such as carrying higher amounts of virus, and there is less risk of picking up defunct virus RNA, which can linger in the nose and throat.

It is also understood that the department is exploring the use of “pooling”, whereby a large number of saliva samples are mixed and tested together.

If the mix comes back negative, an entire group of people — such as a class of 30 schoolchildren or all the residents on a street — can be considered free of the virus. If it comes back positive, scientists will test individual backup samples to establish which person, or people, in the group is infected. A similar technique has been applied to the detection of traces of the coronavirus in sewage.

In its notice to suppliers, the department said companies with no experience in medical equipment were welcome to bid as part of a drive to “scale up testing to meet forecast demand for winter”.

The use of saliva-based testing — where the patient spits into a funnel connected to a test tube — represents a significant shift in strategy. A study published last week in The New England Journal of Medicine found that “saliva specimens and nasopharyngeal swab specimens have at least similar sensitivity in the detection of Sars-CoV-2”.

But on Friday night a spokesman for the Department of Health and Social Care played down the claims, saying: "These figures and timeline are wholly inaccurate and do not represent expectations or planning. We are investing significant resources into piloting new tests and vaccine development."

In April, Professor Julian Peto, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said up to 10 million people a day could be tested for Covid-19 if every laboratory in the country joined the effort. Weekly testing for every member of the UK population was the only way to save lives and the British economy, he said in a letter to the British Medical Journal.

A record 6,874 people tested positive for coronavirus on Friday, although the true figure was likely to be above 7,000 as it does not include cases in Scotland. The death toll rose by 34.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/09/25/ministers-will-do-whatever-takes-save-christmas/

Mr Johnson's ultimate aim (watch the Prime Minister talk about increasing testing in the video below) is for people to have access to "pregnancy-style" home testing kits that can return a result in 20 minutes and give a person a "freedom pass" to get on with their life if their result is negative.

One source said officials had inked in a target of at least 3.2?million tests a day by December – a 13-fold increase on the 245,363 people tested for coronavirus across the UK on Thursday. But another said a more likely timescale would be "early next year", adding that the department could not confirm the three?million tests figure.

Earlier this week, Mr Johnson had hinted at a vast increase in testing when he answered questions about the Government's coronavirus strategy, saying: "We will double our testing capacity by the end of October, to 500,000 tests a day, and we are already testing more people than any other country in Europe.

"Despite the massive increase in testing that we have seen, with a 10 per cent increase in capacity just in the past 10 days or so, we are seeing 64 per cent of people getting their results in 24 hours. I do want to get that up, as fast as possible, to 80 per cent."

An insider said the Health Secretary, Matt Han**** (watch him updating MPs on coronavirus in the video below), and Mr Johnson had both "realised in August that the civil service had lost control of this and they both got involved personally" to address issues with the system and speed up the turnaround of samples.

Meanwhile, ministers were said to be working on other ways to save Christmas if testing targets were not met.

They hoped a vaccine would be approved before Christmas so that as many over-65s as possible could be inoculated. It is understood the NHS website was being prepared for the possibility of offering vaccines to the over-80s from November 8.

Another option under consideration was to close schools early to allow a two-week voluntary quarantine for families wanting to gather in larger groups. With Christmas falling on a Friday this year, most schools will break up on Friday, December 18, meaning the end of term would have to be brought forward to December 11.

Government officials are even considering a two-week quarantine after Christmas, meaning a month-long Christmas break from December 11 to January 10.

At the moment, the "rule of six" means larger groups of people will not be able to spend Christmas together, and Mr Johnson made it clear that stricter rules could follow, with many advisers favouring a total ban on households mixing.

But on Friday night a spokesman for the Department of Health and Social Care played down the claims, saying: "These figures and timeline are wholly inaccurate and do not represent expectations or planning. We are investing significant resources into piloting new tests and vaccine development."

Pinched from the ODX board

“Sources say plans for up to three million Covid tests a day and work on roll-out of vaccines from start of December are under way

Ministers are working on plans to save Christmas and are prepared to do "whatever it takes" to ensure that families are able to meet over the festive period, The Telegraph can disclose.

Multiple sources say plans for up to three million coronavirus tests a day are in progress, and work on the roll-out of vaccines from the beginning of December is under way.

If these measures are not in place in time, families may be able to isolate two weeks before Christmas to enable them to meet safely in groups larger than six. However, Department for Health sources urged a note of caution, saying nothing could be guaranteed at this stage.

Boris Johnson (seen urging the country to get through the winter together in the video below) has come under increasing pressure from his own party to find a way out of lockdown measures that began in March and are taking an increasingly grim toll on the economy.

It emerged on Friday that the national debt had topped £2?trillion for the first time, with Government borrowing £173.7?billion between April and August – more than the previous borrowing record for an entire year.

In an attempt to head off a rebellion by Tory MPs over the Government’s handling of the pandemic, Downing Street announced that Parliament would be given a vote on the "rule of six", meaning it could be abolished when the vote takes place on October 6.

But Tory rebels say they will continue to try to seize control of lockdown restrictions from ministers next week, insisting all new measures are debated and voted on in Parliament.

Writing in The Telegraph, Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of the 1922 Committee of backbench Tory MPs, claimed the Government had got into the habit of "governing by decree".

He said: "The British people have shown remarkable willingness to make sacrifices where it can be shown to be beneficial. But this can't be done on the whim of a Government minister.

" People who are giving up their freedom, losing out on precious family holidays, seeing their livelihoods ruined, really have a right to expect that someone will be there to ask the difficult questions on their behalf: why is this being done? How long will this go on? When exactly will this end?

"If people are banned from seeing their grandchildren or saying goodbye to a dying friend, they deserve some answers."

With Christmas three months away, sources in the testing community have confirmed that the Government has developed plans to hit a target of more than three million tests a day by December.

Details of the Government plans show that its "Moonshot" programme, which aims to have 10 million people tested per day, is more advanced than previously thought.

Mr Johnson's ultimate aim (watch the Prime Minister talk about increasing testing in the video below) is for people to h

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSYz5emEQKg&feature=youtu.be

Not yet listened to it all but around 59.30 he talks briefly about LFD’s

Great thanks - would also be great to know if we are looking at mainstream media or some other hack. Exciting to think that finally our story might hit a wider audience - just hope it’s told correctly!

I don’t think there’s any connection. If I recall, Aptamers were the first generation of antibody mimetic, and Affimers are the much improved second!

Thanks for keeping us updated benben- all sounds intriguing! Any idea when you think we might see coverage?

Just to remind people, in the 13/7 RNS, AS made clear the “substantial commercial potential” of the SKIN collaboration. That potential is now moving towards fruition. At the same time AVCT are clearly protecting their IP and rights as much as possible by making the deal non exclusive, revocable etc. There is only great news for us here.

Staggered by some of the negative reaction to the SKIN news here

Just to follow up on this, here is an audio of the full 16/9 FDA round table event

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfakNcEmaXs&feature=youtu.be

It’s interesting to hear FDA thinking on various matters surrounding Covid diagnostics, directly from the horses mouth. All of its relevant but I suppose the best bits start around 15.30 in, when it becomes clear they’ve not had any at home antigen EUA submissions, are really keen to get them, and will be flexible in dealing with those submissions.

Nice find Manc, if only to get a better feel for the testing process prior to procurement, and the time taken to complete each evaluation.

Yep -great comments from BOJO

Understandably calling for rapid and affordable antigen tests to replace quarantine measures

https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-health-coronavirus-airlines-iata/airlines-call-for-covid-19-tests-before-all-international-flights-idUKKCN26D1V2

Interesting reading which may well have been posted before, in which case apologies!

https://www.bmj.com/content/370/bmj.m3580

Sorry, here is the link to all the transcripts

https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/workshops-conferences-medical-devices/virtual-town-hall-series-immediately-effect-guidance-coronavirus-covid-19-diagnostic-tests-09232020

*there*

I think their are plenty of us who are bemused by this Wiggly, although to be fair the last update was I think 22 July.

For some time now the FDA have been holding regular round table events to discuss and answer questions about their guidance on COVID diagnostic tests, which make interesting reading for those who have time. A transcript follows each event, all of which can be found here - https://www.fda.gov/media/142312/download

The latest one was from 16/9, and of particular note was the confirmation on page 7 that the FDA has not received a single EUA application for an at home test, despite having had their template guidance for them out for some time.

So, although we are hearing more and more about “competitor” tests, none of them it seems are any further forward than us and indeed I would think most are lagging some way behind.