Covid-19: Mass testing is inaccurate and gives false sense of security, minister admits

[Mary Wilson]

BMJ 2020; 371 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m4916 (Published 18 December 2020)

Elisabeth Mahase

Mass testing of people without covid-19 symptoms is “not an accurate way of screening the general population,” a senior figure at the Department of Health and Social Care has said in a letter seen by The BMJ.

The comments were made by James Bethell, one of England’s health ministers, in response to a letter from an MP raising concerns about blanket polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing on behalf of a constituent.

In his letter Bethell stated that “swab testing people with no symptoms is not an accurate way of screening the general population, as there is a real risk of giving false reassurance.” He added, “Widespread asymptomatic testing could undermine the value of testing, as there is a risk of giving misleading results. Rather, only people with covid-19 symptoms should get tested.”

The comments were made as the government expanded mass testing of asymptomatic people after a pilot scheme in Liverpool and announced a further rollout of widespread testing in schools.

https://www.bmj.com/content/371/bmj.m4916

 

[JJackson]

I have to disagree. Mass testing is needed to find out quickly what the true level of infection is in the population and to catch asymptomatic spreaders. It needs to be done in conjunction with rapid contact tracing to reap the full benefit. Waiting until some one show symptoms will miss about a third of cases who have no symptoms and probably only catch people late in their transmission phase or after it.

 

[Okieman]

I think that the mass testing, especially in secondary school children over the past week or two has been primarily in Kent County. While I have not read anything to prove this my theory is that they are trying to quickly get a handle on how this new variant of Covid is different from the older variant. What is the R value? What is the case fatality rate? I think that they are trying to get as much data from the field as they can to complement the lab data. Just my theory.