4 ms·

I took part in this test. In April/May I had a slight cough, tight chest and got breathless when walking. I had a very faint line indicating short term antibodi

I took part in this test. In April/May I had a slight cough, tight chest and got breathless when walking. I had a very faint line indicating short term antibodies, then the second test I had no signs. Now if I had covid is another question. Everyone has been pretty damning of the testing system. Phone up doctors or an NHS help line, it's pretty much 'You may have mild symptoms' well how about we just do some testing yeah? I have no faith in the government stats for covid, if they're not even sending people to get tests then how on earth do they know what's really going on?

DoingIsLearning 6y ago
The Dutch are pretty much doing mass testing by analysing virus particles in sewage waste water. This gives you city level resolution of the virus spread and prevalence but I assume it relies on the assumption that the majority of infected people will also have detectable GI virus concentrations.
- tomatocracy 6y ago
  The ONS in the UK has been doing some very good work tracking prevalence in the community (and because they understand the statistical processes they're using properly, they update the estimates of past prevalence too). Unfortunately the ONS data is not reported as often in the press because it's updated only weekly, whereas test and trace-based absolute numbers are reported daily even though they're close to useless for population-level or region-level analysis. Unfortunately there's no similarly reliable source aimed at understanding prevalence and spread in institutional settings I'm aware of. This is a particular concern given that institutional settings encompasses hospitals and care homes, where a large portion of the most vulnerable are.