Professor Jon Deeks, a biostatistician from the University of Birmingham, said rapid coronavirus tests will cause outbreaks in schools if the Government presses on with plans to roll them out nationally because they are so inaccurate
Rapid coronavirus tests will cause outbreaks in schools if the Government presses on with plans to roll them out nationally because they are so inaccurate, a top scientist has warned.
Biostatistician Professor Jon Deeks said he was surprised at how bad the Innova Tried & Tested lateral flow kits performed in his trial of more than 7,000 students at the University of Birmingham.
The 15-minute tests – which the UK has spent more than £600million on – picked up just three per cent of asymptomatic students infected with the virus.
Number 10 s ambitious Operation Moonshot came under fire from top scientists today amid fears the rapid coronavirus tests being rolled out across the UK aren t good enough as ministers shelved plans to open up mass testing centres over Christmas.
Moonshot has been slated as way to use the rapid kits - which cost a fraction of the price of gold-standard PCR tests - to test millions of people and help them get back onto flights abroad, into stadiums and venues, and to keep children in classrooms.
Lateral flow swabs give results in minutes but miss around half of infections, by the Department of Health s own admission. But damning evidence shows they may be effectively useless when self-administered, despite Downing Street s current testing scheme relying on people taking their own swabs.
Rapid coronavirus tests that Britain spent more than £600million on could pick up as few as three per cent of people infected with the virus, a study has suggested.
A trial of the Innova Tried & Tested lateral flow test on students at the University of Birmingham raises some serious questions about the value of mass-testing .
The rapid test, which can produce results within 15 minutes and is being widely used in the first phases of Operation Moonshot to test asymptomatic people and curb the spread of the virus, was pitted by officials as a new way to keep cases under control and potentially even release people from self-isolation.