Share Price26 Jun 2020 10:20
What is going on, not a good avert for NCYT. Could be reason for selling ....
It would be nice to be able to say otherwise, but the UK’s approach to testing in this covid-19 pandemic continues to be chaotic, centralised, commercialised, and driven by numerical targets rather than clear strategy. Allan Wilson, president of the Institute of Biomedical Sciences, has called this reactive and random approach the “wild west of testing.” Writing for BMJ Opinion this week, Chris Ham agrees. The system is far from “world beating,” and ministers must be prepared to acknowledge and learn from mistakes, he says.
What makes matters worse is the ongoing lack of honesty. The government has exaggerated the performance of its much vaunted test, track, and trace system: most contacts were traced by local health teams, with only a minority by the national, privately contracted call centres. Some reasons for this are grimly outlined by one doctor who signed up to work in them.
As for antibody testing, there are the same mistakes. Heralded by our political leaders as “game changing” and an “important milestone,” antibody testing is being ramped up, with healthcare trusts being asked to be ready to rapidly process thousands of tests a day. But a group of public health and clinical experts warn that this makes no sense: these tests are NOT useful in diagnosis and can’t be relied on.