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Reaction to advice from Public Health England (PHE) regarding rapid tests for COVID-19, for use in community pharmacies or at home.
Prof Martin Hibberd, Professor of Emerging Infectious Disease, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said:
“In the absence of extensive testing by PHE, there will be huge demand for self-testing. While PHE are right to warn against these tests, as they are most likely not accurate, they should be fully evaluating them right now and releasing the data as quickly as possible. With data in hand, the message can be more convincing.
“Accurate testing of all suspected cases would be a great help to the COVID-19 response. This would be best performed, or at least supervised, by PHE to ensure accuracy, but also so that PHE can collate the resultant data. South Korea has shown that testing of all people with symptoms can aid in containment, by helping to identify who should fully isolate themselves. In addition, accurate antibody testing could inform people whether they are part of the herd immunity that is being built up and thus adjust their behaviour accordingly. This large scale testing is possible, but would perhaps require a new, less central, approach.”
All our previous output on this subject can be seen at this weblink: www.sciencemediacentre.org/tag/covid-19/
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