In what was presented as a relaxation of testing requirements, but is in fact a withdrawal of service, the UKHSA has announced that as of January 11th confirmatory PCR tests will no longer be recommended – and thus unavailable – for those who test positive on a lateral flow test (LFT) without symptoms. MailOnline has more.
Confirmatory PCR tests will no longer be needed for people testing positive for Covid on a lateral flow test, health chiefs confirmed today.
Previous guidance to back up positive rapid tests with more accurate lab results will be removed from January 11th.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) announced the move amid sky-high case numbers across England.
The move will free up capacity in laboratories for PCR tests for those who have Covid symptoms.
People who receive a positive result on a lateral flow device (LFD) will be required to self-isolate immediately for seven days, without requiring PCR confirmation.
UKHSA said this is a temporary measure while Covid rates remain high across the UK.
Officials said that while levels of Covid are high, the “vast majority” of people with positive LFD results can be confident they have the virus.
They estimated the number of “false positives” results, where people without the virus get a positive LFD result, are as low as three in 10,000.
However with just under 1.5 million of LFD tests being conducted across the UK every day this could lead to thousands of people who don’t have Covid having to isolate.
People who have Covid symptoms, such as a high temperature, a new, continuous cough, or change in sense of taste and/or smell should still get a PCR test, UKHSA said.
UKHSA has said that LFTs are 80% effective at finding people with high viral loads of Covid. However, Professor Sheila Bird, a former programme leader of the MRC Biostatistics Unit at the University of Cambridge, said the 80% figure is based on data from the Alpha and Delta waves. “For transparency, results for these Omicron-era dual-testing evaluations should be placed in the public domain at the earliest opportunity,” she said.
Anecdotally I have been told by several people that they tested positive on LFT but then subsequently tested negative on PCR. Some of them were symptomatic. They said the person on the phone at Test and Trace told them this was very common at the moment as the LFTs were cross-reacting with other viruses and producing false positives that the PCR test then overruled.
If this is the case – and I have no reason to doubt it – then despite the change being billed as a solution to the staffing crisis it will only make it worse as thousands of people have to isolate from LFT false positives for which no confirmatory PCR test is available.
Since mass testing of the healthy has clearly failed to contain the virus – with new figures from the ONS today showing that an estimated 6% of the country was infected at the end of December – and with so many protected via natural immunity and vaccination, and with Omicron so mild, the Government needs to end all mass testing without delay and limit testing to contexts, such as hospitals and care homes, where it is needed to diagnose illness and protect the vulnerable.
Stop Press: The Mail is reporting that the Government is set to scrap all pre-departure Covid traveller tests today in a boost for the tourism industry, while the airline industry is demanding the Government goes a step further and axes all travel tests. Good news – but is it not time to accept that mass testing no longer serves any useful purpose (if it ever did) and we need to end this expensive drag on our economy and lives?
Discussion
Comments
This week across the site:
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to the Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
I’ve had enough of this ‘asymptomatic’ nonsense. If you’ve no symptoms then you’re not ill. I had a cold recently and didn’t need to swab my nose or throat with glass and mercury to find out that I had viral rhinopharyngitis.
Govt covering their arses, now realizing that their ‘following the science’ is a load of junk?
This guy won’t be getting invited back on the BBC anytime soon.
Don’t test if you don’t have symptoms then, and if you have to do a test just dump the transfer fluid on the test without swabbing, easy.
If you can’t figure that out you deserve to imprison yourself.
All of this happens because we do it too ourselfs, including going along with the clearly absurd asymptomatic transmission superstition.
I agree. Nobody watches you take the test! The government are (for whatever reason) giving us a way out here. We’d be dumb not to take it.
In a sense this is a test of the country: are we too dumb enough see it? It’s also a sense of true public spirit because 28 days off without certification will tempt many to declare they’re positive when they’re not.
The very best thing is to simply not test and say it’s negative.
If we’re too dumb and lazy not to realise that life must return to normal you’re right:we don’t deserve to survive.
They test for the flu since they’ve never isolated Covid-19. Which makes me wonder how they can tell there is a delta variant. They never isolated the virus but they use a test to show the damage of a solution does on monkey kidney cells then show the cellular debris as proof of the virus. So, they can use this method to claim an UNENDING! amount of variants. A lot of cancers and “viruses” are probably just different forms of parasites. Since the tests can’t differentiate between cold and flu and covid then doesn’t that mean ivermectin cures both the cold and the flu? Welcome to “they’ve been lying to us our entire lives about everything”. Get your Ivermectin while you still can! https://ivmpharmacy.com
They are now claiming that the flu and COVID-19 have hybridised. Some “scientist” somewhere has claimed s/he has found a variant of Coronavirus that has a flu variant embedded in it.
This is their way of explaining where the regular head colds and flu disappeared to in the last two years. Flu’s and cold’s had to have hybridised with COVID-19, because it’s not as if they could have simply flown away to some sunny climes for a holiday; after all, the airports were shut and planes grounded – except for Davos’ get-togethers.
Yep, you couldn’t make it up.
Roll on Nuremberg II. I want first dabs at being the hangman. I’ll spare them the expense of a mask, because I’ll want everyone to see the wide smile on my face as I eagerly yank the lever.
Can you picture me playfully ruffling Boris Johnson’s hair just before I drop him? Oh, sweet dreams.
But they have made it all up – that’s the problem- ask Fauci and Gates. after all, “You can fool some of the people all the time”!
Can you picture me playfully ruffling Boris Johnson’s hair just before I drop him? Oh, sweet dreams.
Sweet dreams indeed.
But all they’re doing is surreptitiously giving us a way out.
Allow me to explain: if it’s a case of needing this to end then if forced to take a LFT for work or other purposes a person can just lie and say it’s negative.
Or don’t take it and just say it’s negative.
The government want this madness to end and are relying on the public to take the hint.
That way they can’t be blamed for being negligent and those that are smart enough will take the hint and lie/or simply not take it and say it’s negative.
Is this immoral? Not in my view.
Immorality is letting this madness continue out of some pious idea of the greater good.
Bozo is the successor to Sir Winston Churchill?
Surely that is conspiracy theory.
I never mentioned Churchill, though (?)
Absolutely no surprise here – what took them so long? Can people claim compensation for the damage done to them?
I do hope so.
Well, you have to introduce some measure to keep the “case counts” high, don’t you?
The problem with failing to require a confirmatory PCR test for “lateral flow” positives, is that a positive now gets to bypass the crucial layer of quality control, and “cases” will appear to skyrocket, leading to a case-demic beyond anything we’ve seen.
Not only that, but this move will lead to the appearance of higher covid “hospitalizations” as the inclusion of a hospitalization in the official count is dependent upon a test on admission. If all this requires is a lateral flow test, then we’ll be looking at essentially a mirage of a pandemic, which unfortunately people will believe.
Just a few weeks ago I asked if this is the case. Looks like I was on to something.
If you take an LFT can you lie about the result and how do you notify the relevant authority, never taken one so haven’t a clue how they work, ie can you decide to have a positive test if you want time off work.
Being as the PCR test has never been fit for purpose who the fuck cares.
Should be good for a laugh! Everyone test yourself now, with a piece of plastic tat Made in China! Plenty more coming – Javid has just ordered another 250,000,000 of the items destined for landfill – with your money!!
I have a sneaking suspicion that Javid’s bodyguards never test themselves – where would he be if they had to stay at home and isolate for 10 days each time?
Doubling down on the fraud while making it look like they’re easing off.
If this were a real thing, they’d be requiring those who tested positive without symptoms to do an additional test, not those who already show symptoms. The symptoms should be confirmation!
*Face-palm*
Canting Covidian Scholasticism.
No. Mass testing never did serve any purpose – except to ramp up fear. Which is why it was never recommended in any coherent evidence-based strategy.
PCR = confirmatory? Dream on. And why the inaccurate use of the term “infection” in this piece?
PCR “the gold standard”. That’s up there with ‘stay safe’ for propaganda slogans of the last two years.
There’s a montage somewhere, similar to the “brought to you by Pfizer” one, of all the news channels using the phrase. It could of course be just innocently repeating Fauci, who used it.
And correct me if I’m wrong, but never before have medical professionals relied on a test for a disease when there’s no symptoms, particularly with the settings that have been used.
Dr Simon Goddek goes into details in the Delingpod, from the Dutch and German perspective at least.
Correction.HIV test for AIDS. Asymptomatic plus positive test for HIV antibodies, congrats you’ve got AIDS.
Exactly, but the weird thing about the HIV antibody test is that positive testing for antibodies is normally confirmation that you have fought it off. For HIV they flipped it on its head so positive antibody test means the opposite and they didn’t bother to justify why. The Fauci book goes into detail on this. It does appear from the information in that book that HIV is a total fraud and the HIV virus alone does not cause AIDS. What is guaranteed to give you AIDS is the AZT treatment that is given to people with HIV antibodies. More than a little fishy, eh? There are so many parallels between the HIV scam and Covid.
Hasn’t Bliar patented “gold standard PCR?”
Of course, this has nothing to do with the US FDA withdrawing permission to use the PCR test (reason; unselective, cannot differentiate flu or Covid). The FDA announced this in July 2021, as a Class1 recall (strongest recall), with an effective end date of the 31st December 2021.
All of a sudden, PCR is not good enough? or was it just there to control the emerging narrative by over-amplification of the replication cycles?
Isn’t it remarkable how the ‘gold standard’ test turns out to be shit! Not like anyone pointed this out right at the beginning, of course…
It can’t differentiate between ‘covid’ and the flu because it is the flu.
Mean while in Spain:(Both links are in Spanish.
A woman who did not want her two boys to be vaccinated went into hiding An official complaint for the abduction of “minors” was issued on December 16, although the father had not heard from the whereabouts of his children since November 9.
It would appear that a Judge ruled the father could have the boys vaccinated.
She has now given back the children to the courts where the father has collected them.
The mother is being branded as an anti-vaxxer. She is worried that these vaccines will be harmful to her children.
https://www.telecinco.es/informativos/sociedad/madre-entrega-hijos-antivacuna-sevilla_18_3262096822.html
In Madrid, any child up 12 years old, who have been in close contact with a Covid positive person will not have to be quarantined
https://www.telecinco.es/informativos/nacional/alumnos-hasta-12-anos-no-haran-cuarentena-comunidad-madrid_18_3262097489.html
“… they tested positive on LFT but then subsequently tested negative on PCR… C
Could it be that some were, in fact, false positives?
No symptoms?
Carry on working.
Useless and double useless. Take your pick.
Won’t be confining me anywhere because I simply refuse to take any tests. Same with the vaccines, they can stick that up their arses cos it’s not going in mine
I doubt The Twilight Zone would have made such an episode… it’s simply too bizarre.
Testing, testing, testing!https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/athena-thorne/2022/01/02/panicky-would-be-covid-victims-line-up-for-hours-to-find-out-if-theyre-sick-n1546100
A little O/T but relating to ‘cases’. I remember looking at the definition of ‘cases’ early on, and it read something like; “The NHS defines a COVID case as someone with the following symptoms…[removed as not to bore you]. A case does not require a positive test, nor clinical observation. Call 111 if you suspect you are infected with CONVID”.
This raised my eyebrows more than a little at the time, but I can’t seem to find it now. Buried under the shite therein I suspect.
But, does anyone know if this is still what is happening? Are ‘case figures’ now more robust and actually useful?
Because even the most reasonable doctors seem to be using this data as if it’s absolute (thinking about that Dr John Cambell on youtube), and no-one seems to be bothered that the actual figure must be off by a huge margin, surely…
John Campbell, the last time I looked (about three weeks ago) was still a blithering idiot – “our amazing vaccines.”
Nonce.
Not really going to help if the countries UK citizens want to travel to still require tests, which they all do. Just managed to go skiing in Italy over new year. It will be the last time I take a flight anywhere until the madness of testing comes to an end – cost me over £1k for 5 of us to get tests on the way out and then in the way back. Plus the 2 day test on the return to the UK which has to be booked to get boarding passes and to complete the travel locator form. Stansted was like a ghost town both ways. This infrastructure is simply not viable for much longer but maybe that’s the point. A deliberate ploy to restrict travel. The legacy of this pandemic is already looking like it will cripple society and yet the majority of the public still live in fear. I feel like I’m living in a Kafka story – although not sure even he could have thought this one up.
Loxckdowns are the pathway to Net Zero full economic collapse. Government commissioned reports have already said that by 2050 EVERY airport will be closed apart from Heathrow so that it can be used for cargo and the elite. Its time to wake up folks.
Link please? Last govt report I read was all out for adding a second runway to Heathrow.
Link: ukfires.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Absolute-Zero-online.pdf
The plan is to have only three function airports for mass travel in the UK come 2030 – HRW, BHD and GLA. Yes the plan is to destroy aviation as a mass hospitality entertainment….distraction.
Private jets go through Farnborough mostly… which is why so much investment has flowed there…
Its the new normal folks… as Greta falls to her knees and weeps in thanks…blah… blah blah.
Oh… and go to Google Maps now, switch to terrain mode… and check out what’s parked up at BOH…. scrap values of titanium anyone?
PS: black boxes for real time car track-n-trace is also becoming mandatory….
https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/car-news/105413/all-new-cars-to-have-black-box-data-loggers-under-eu-laws
So you see… linked to a social credit score you know what’s coming…
a thoroughly joyless, low protein, draconian techno Orwellian snooping society….
We wont be allowed to own cars….
People havent the faintest idea whats planned, nor who is behind it all. As for Greta, she says the world will end in 9 years while patenting her name and starting a Clinton style slush fund to protect her long term economic interests.
I wonder if Greta will be bringing out her own collection of perfumes and accessories… don’t buy the ‘scented’ candles!!! (in case Gwyneth Paltrow has given her ideas)
3rd runway, don’t think it will ever be built now.
5 regional airports in Finland closed in March 2020 “because of Covid”. Still closed.
Group think being what has been driving this insanity since March 2020, if someone in the group steps out of line, and it works, it is highly likely the rest of the group will follow suit.
When you turn into a beetle, that’s the time to worry.
When Whitless turns into a beetle, that’s the time to cheer.
When Dungford turns into a dung beetle, nobody will even notice.
This is exactly what it is – to imprison people in their own countries, and strip them of everything they own, including their dignity.
Bring in the anal swabs, say I. I should like to see Dido Harding stood outside Tesco with a ‘Covid marshall’ poking her bum with a large cotton bud.
Agenda 2030.
Why would anyone admit to an asymptomatic positive if they were automatically locked down for a week with no get out?
If they are idle. This actually sorts the wheat from the chaff because the workers will stop testing themselves, unless they actually have a cold, but even then they might think better of taking the test.
Why are mysophobes obsessed with disinfecting everything they can lay their hands on?
Why are mysophobes obsessed with disinfecting everything? Because they are also mys-anthropes.
And what about the 2 kilogrammes of bacteria within their bodies, and all the mites crawling over them and eating the flakes of their skin?
There are more bacterial cells in a human body than human cells.
God knows. My local gym is full of the nutters.
If they’re public sector workers such as NHS staff, the prize is as week on full pay for daying jack all. Netflix days
Has anyone reverse engineered this home kits to see what they actually do? I’m still confused what they actually look for. I assume it’s like a pregnancy kit and reacts to specific genetic material. I’m aware of the methods used to fool the test with orange juice or whatnot, but it’s all so very vague. Exactly what are these tests doing in a scientific sense?
They’re looking for a protein that is meant to be specific to the virus. Supposedly. It will react with something impregnated in the strip and make a coloured stripe. Then whatever the solvent is will continue up the strip and react with control strip to colour that too.
Made in China. 100% guaranteed to work.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AERyetmR7FY
Thanks for that Sophie.
Stop fucking testing yourselves, for a cold, you fucking twats!!!
I know people who have stopped testing themselves, even when it’s required. They are just using the number from the lateral flow devices but not actually testing themselves. Or something like that – I don’t know how it works ‘cos I have never used one.
The plastic test strip has a serial number on it. You go on the the NHS covid site, report the serial number and whether positive or negative and you get a SMS or email back with your result on. You can then show this SMS/email to anyone who asks for it. That might be a sports stadium or other venue.
I frequently attend a ‘lifestyle’ club (the sort where clothing is very optional and extremely close physical contact is the aim) and a clear LFT is a requirement of entry. I’ve never taken one; just enter the serial number and tick the ‘Negative’ box.
How to do a LFT and what they have inside them:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zo04nV3HBEQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AERyetmR7FY
You took the words right out of my mouth. On the other hand let the idiots keeping shoving sticks into their faces and locking themselves down. Meanwhile let the rest of us just to try to get on with life!
I belong to a Recorder group in Wales and the group leader has just canvassed our views on whether we should continue meeting. One of the newest members of the group has said she is happy to continue as long as everyone takes regular lateral flow tests because her dad is in a Care Home.
I have suggested (as bluntly as I dare) that anyone frightened of mixing should stay at home rather than trying to impose conditions on other members of the group. I’m fully expecting to be booted out any day now….
It’s the right thing to do. If she’s afraid she might infect her dad (and if these tests would work as people believe they do) she’d need to take a test before visiting him. There’s no reason why anybody who won’t ever do that would need to do it unless it’s not about her dad at all but about her.
Don’t forget that the Covid virus can get into your coat pockets, and travel round with you. Not to mention getting entangled in your hair. And, of course, it can get into your bloodstream through your eyes! Remember that?
We are at the other end of the country, otherwise you should join our group. We formed a recorder group from a STIP and recently did our first set of concerts. No masks, no testing or other hang ups. Liberating! United in music.
If she’s so concerned about her dad I suggest she removes herself from the group, and avoids going into all shops. And she stays at home and wraps herself in clingfilm from head to toe.
What a selfish cow. Tell her to stay at home to “stay safe.”
From the boating forum just now:
“Flying around now is covid19 in my area (Nuneaton). Daughter and her BF both just recovering after having it over Christmas. Also 2 of my snooker team missing for tomorrow nights match. That’s a pain because it’s an important match.”
The absolute stupidity and belief in ‘Covid’ just never stops.
proof if proof were ever needed that these are nothing more than rules, for the sake of having rules.
Would be good if people reading this news item might think to themselves, “if they can change them now, just because it is inconvenient to have them, then maybe we don’t really need them at all.”
Here’s hoping.
With combined news items on BBC news today my overriding thought was “if you can’t see it now you are never going to see it.”