Mass home screening for asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection unlikely to reduce transmission
Apr 30 2021
Encouraging self-testing at home twice a week for all adults in England, and soon Scotland, is a misguided policy, unlikely to reduce transmission, warn public health experts in The BMJ today.
In an editorial, Angela Raffle and Mike Gill, Public Health Consultants with experience in both communicable disease control and screening programs, say that the UK is not yet succeeding in testing, and supporting to isolate, everyone with symptoms and their contacts.
Coronavirus tests per case detected are already higher in the UK than anywhere in the world, they write, and the value of adding universal low-risk testing is unknown, yet is being introduced without plans to measure the costs and consequences.
E-Mail The priority continues to be improvement of the testing programme for everyone with symptoms no matter how minor or non-specific and all their contacts
Encouraging self-testing at home twice a week for all adults in England, and soon Scotland, is a misguided policy, unlikely to reduce transmission, warn public health experts in
The BMJ today.
In an editorial, Angela Raffle and Mike Gill, Public Health Consultants with experience in both communicable disease control and screening programmes, say that the UK is not yet succeeding in testing, and supporting to isolate, everyone with symptoms and their contacts.
Coronavirus tests per case detected are already higher in the UK than anywhere in the world, they write, and the value of adding universal low-risk testing is unknown, yet is being introduced without plans to measure the costs and consequences.
Public health consultants writing in the BMJ said 60 years of experience had already demonstrated that mass testing of healthy people is not an effective strategy MASS home Covid testing is misguided and unlikely to reduce transmission , according to public health experts. Both England and Scotland have introduced lateral flow tests which the public can access for free twice a week in order to carry out rapid Covid tests at home as lockdown measures are eased. The devices, rolled out as part of the Operation Moonshot initiative, are intended to pick up asymptomatic cases in the population to limit the spread of the virus.
Mass testing for Covid could increase transmission – experts thecourier.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from thecourier.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Mass Covid testing with lateral flow kits could increase transmission, experts warn
Public health experts, Angela Raffle and Mike Gill, said the Operation Moonshot mass-screening programme is a “misguided policy
Prime Minister Boris Johnson looks at samples in the PHE s Lateral Flow Testing Laboratory (Image: Adrian Dennis/PA Wire)
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