'Operation Moonshot': doubts over UK's Covid test ambitions after trial scaled back

[Northerner]

Fresh doubts have been raised over “Operation Moonshot”, the government’s £100bn testing plan, after a pilot to regularly test a quarter of a million people was paused then significantly scaled back.

The trial, in Salford in Greater Manchester, had been heralded as the first step in a mass-testing mission which Boris Johnson said “would allow people to lead more normal lives, without the need for social distancing”.

All 254,000 residents were to eventually take regular saliva tests – a scientific breakthrough Johnson said would turn round results “in 90 or even 20 minutes”.

But six weeks after the pilot began, it was paused last week and on Tuesday the government admitted it would now be smaller in scale and focused on “high-risk environments and groups”.

'Operation Moonshot': doubts over UK's Covid test ambitions after trial scaled back

Salford saliva-testing scheme revised to focus on ‘high-risk environments and groups’

www.theguardian.com

That went well 🙄

 

[Eddy Edson]

Moonshots & expensively produced presentations by pretty twenty-something consulting company associates, or droning incremental drudgework with people who know what they're doing?

There is a category of clueless lunchers & talkers who manage to get themselves into influential positions & who will always go for the former. Look into any big govt or corporate money-waste scandal and you'll find them. It's pretty much where the consulting companies make their margins.

 

[mikeyB]

We still have no information whether these tests are any good. Are they reliable? To what degree? The only truly reliable saliva test I know of is licking your finger and sticking it in the air to see which way the wind is blowing. Which is the test this government uses to decide on societal restrictions. It sure ain’t science.

 

[Amity Island]

We still have no information whether these tests are any good. Are they reliable? To what degree? The only truly reliable saliva test I know of is licking your finger and sticking it in the air to see which way the wind is blowing. Which is the test this government uses to decide on societal restrictions. It sure ain’t science.

MikeyB,
Is it possible to find a test positive for any virus in someone's body if you amplify it millions of times?

 

[Sharron1]

Moonshots & expensively produced presentations by pretty twenty-something consulting company associates, or droning incremental drudgework with people who know what they're doing?

There is a category of clueless lunchers & talkers who manage to get themselves into influential positions & who will always go for the former. Look into any big govt or corporate money-waste scandal and you'll find them. It's pretty much where the consulting companies make their margins.

Sometimes, I think I work with all these clueless talkers. The fascinating thing is that they do it with such confidence