Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
TEST AND DISGRACE
» UK system is a shambles says top doc Missing symptoms could lead to a new wave
BRITAIN’S test and trace programme has been labelled a “shambles and disgrace” which could hurtle us into a second wave of coronavirus.
Experts say including just three symptoms runs the risk of missing
HALF of all people infected.
The app scheme will lead to testing for people with a loss of taste and smell, a fever or a cough.
But a top GP accused politicians of “dangerous arrogance, haphazard amateurism” and said it was “nonsense” to say the scheme is 95 per cent effective.
Dr Nick Summerton – who raised the alarm in the Sunday Mirror on May 10
– is worried that 14 symptoms are omitted. In contrast to the UK’s app, the US Centres for Disease Prevention list 11 symptoms, a King’s College London tracker gives 17 and the World Health Organisation has 10.
Yet PM Boris Johnson said he thought the UK list was more comprehensive in his briefing on Thursday. Chief Medical Officer
Professor Chris Whitty said at the time: “The key thing is the fever, new cough and loss or change of smell or taste. The great majority – probably over 95 per cent who have coronavirus with symptoms – will have one of those three.”
But Dr Summerton hit back: “It is nonsense. I don’t know what evidence he was using. There is a real risk of a second peak if we build tracing contacts on poor foundations. If we don’t broaden the symptom list we’ll miss three out of every 10 people with Covid.
“And if we don’t consider symptoms alongside test results we will miss another two out of 10, due to false negative tests. They have rushed this out. There were three
hings to do before they rolled this out. Ramp up testing – testing fewer than 100,000 a day is inexcusable now. If I was in that position, I would resign.
“They need to widen the symptoms they’re listing. And they need a way of dealing with the false negatives. There is an arrogance among senior politicians and advisers. It is dangerous. Track and trace is becoming a shambles, just like testing. The whole thing is an embarrassment. It’s a disgrace.
“Their overall approach to symptoms seems to be haphazard and amateur.”
Dr Summerton says symptoms should be clustered in three groups.
He explained: “It will usually infect the back of our nose or throat first. It will reproduce and multiply before heading to our lungs, leading to a cough or shortness of breath, or into our gut – leading to diarrhoea or sickness.
“So three broad groups – general viral symptoms, symptoms linked to the virus entering our bodies and symptoms from organs that it might infect – especially our lungs or our guts.”
Dr Sarah Jarvis, Clinical Director of Patientaccess.com, agreed with the focus on other symptoms and said the row over adviser Dominic Cummings breaking lockdown rules has affected public trust. She said: “We have to look at the most common symptoms people have. Among patients I’ve seen, profound tiredness and muscle ache has been common.”
The Shadow Health Secretary Jonathan Ashworth said: “Boris Johnson doesn’t seem to understand how it is going to work. It’s vital government explain fully how test and trace will work and when it will be fully up and running.”
The Department of Health and Social Care said: “We have successfully launched Test and Trace to help identify, contain and control coronavirus and save lives, offer anyone with symptoms a test and trace contacts to prevent transmission.”