Scotland to continue mass testing despite concerns over accuracy in England
Scottish government has said it will press ahead with plans to follow England’s rollout of mass twice-weekly lateral flow testing, after concerns were raised over accuracy of the tests south of the border.
The programme in Scotland, which was announced by Nicola Sturgeon last week, is still being finalised a week after more detail was due to be set out.
But a spokesperson for the Scottish Government said on Friday there had been no changetotheplansafterleaked emails showed ministers in England were “urgently” considering withdrawing the tests amid concerns over accuracy.
In leaked emails reported by the Guardian, Ben Dyson, an adviser to UK health secretary Matt Hancock, said there was a “fairly urgent need for decisions” on “the point at which we stop offering asymptomatic testing”, warning the accuracy of the tests could be as low as 2 per cent.
Dr Angela Raffle, a lecturer at Bristol University Medical School, said it was “beyond belief” that testing had been rolled out without proper scrutiny of how well they perform outside a clinical setting.
Neil Mabbott, professor of immunopathology at Edinthe
burgh University, said the tests would be “very helpful” in allowing restrictions to ease, andthatsometestingwasbetter than no testing.
But he added the lateral flow tests were “nowhere near as accurate” as PCR tests, and they could be harmful if people took fewer precautions as a result of getting a negative test.
Commenting on the tests in general, Prof Mabbott said: “They will detect people with a reasonably high viral titre[viralload],sothey’regoing to miss certain people who fall below that threshold.
"And when you have a PCR test, it’s probably being taken by somebody who is trained, so because the public are doing most of these tests the accuracy ofsamplingthesitemightnotbe as consistent.
“They are going to miss a proportionofinfectionindividuals, but they will capture a reasonable amount of people who have high titres who wouldn’t necessarily
be showing symptoms.”
He added: "They are very harmful if people think when theytestnegativethattheydon’t need to worry about social distancing or wearing a mask etc. It’snotaget-out-of-jail-freecard that means you can go back to your normal life.”
Dr Raffle, who is also a consultant to the UK National Screening Programmes, called it "beyond belief " that lateral flow tests had been rolled out "without some really solid evaluation being done months and months ago to say ... what really happens in a true life setting?"
She added: "The idea that we should be making tests available to the general population to use themselves when we have no data at all on how well they perform when done by people whoaren'ttrained,tomeit'sjust crazy."
A Scottish Government spokesperson said the planned mass testing programme “will help us protect the progress we’ve made so far in easing restrictionsbyfindingcasesthat might otherwise be missed, as not everyone with Covid-19 will have symptoms”.
They added: “Targeted community testing in Scotland has alreadyidentifiedover1,000cases of Covid-19 in people without symptoms, helping to break chains of transmission within those communities by enabling those people to immediately self-isolate.”
It came as there were calls more focus to be put on noncovid illness as cases fall and virus no longer leading cause of death.
Dr Lynn Turner, director of research at Edinburghbased charity Worldwide Cancer Research, said the news brought into “sharp focus” concerns that Covid-19 had sidelinedworkinmanyotherfields.
Cancer Research UK said if the charity did not find further support, it would have to make research budget cuts for the next four to five years.
A spokesperson for Chest, Heart and Stroke, which supports people across Scotland with those conditions, said a yearoflockdownsmayhavehad a negative impact on people’s health,leadingtoanincreasein riskforheartdiseaseandstroke.
“During lockdown, people haven’t been as active, their diet may have changed and stress levels have been higher,” the spokesperson said.
"All these things can increase theriskfactorsforheartdisease and stroke.”
He added: “The knock on health impacts of Covid are likelytobefeltforyearstocome and we will need to redouble our efforts to find solutions to the complex problems it has created.”
It comes as figures from National Records of Scotland this week showed March was the first month since October 2020 that Covid-19 was not the leading cause of death. Instead it was number five, behind dementia/alzheimer’s, heart disease.
Dr Turner said: "The recent statistics which show Covid-19 is no longer the leading cause of death in Scotland marks a welcome milestone in the fight against the virus, and a declining trend that we perhaps couldn’t have imagined at the turn of the year.
“The shift in the landscape, however, brings into sharp focus our concern about the impactoftheongoingpandemic on cancer, specifically cancer research, and what that means forthoselivingwiththedisease. The long-term consequences may not be visible now, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t there.”
In February, Covid-19 accounted for 31 per cent of deaths, while in January that figure was 18 per cent. Covid-19 is still the leading cause of death across the whole year.
Vaccine centres bill kept secret by SNP and health boards
The SNP and several health boards have been accused of “secrecy” over their failure to disclose the cost to the taxpayer of hiring venues to be used as vaccination centres.
Venues being used across Scotland include shopping centres, conference centres and village halls, with many charging for the privilege. However, any estimate of the total cost has not been disclosed by the Scottish government.
The vaccination programme is viewed as central to Scotland’s hopes of reopening the economy, but politicians have criticised the secrecy around the figures from the Scottish government and health boards.
The secrecy has led to politicians calling for “transparent government”, with the Scottish Liberal Democrats criticising the SNP for having a “default setting of secrecy”.
The vast majority of nonnhs vaccination centres are owned or run by health boards, local authorities or are ultimately owned by councils such as the Edinburgh International Conference Centre, the SSE Hydro and the P&J Live Arena.
However, costs of hiring the venues could include additional costs for staffing and security for the venues organised by the venue itself, which would also be picked up by the Scottish government.
In response to a Freedom of Information request asking for a list of vaccination centres being paid for and the cost to the public purse, the Scottish government said it did not hold the information as it was continuing to work with health boards and councils.
Some health boards responded with figures for their vaccination centres, while others claimed “commercial
confidentiality”, with another citing “security reasons” meant they were unable to disclose the information.
Alex Cole-hamilton, the Liberal Democrat health spokesperson, said the cost of the vaccination centres were worth the outlay, but he did not understand the secrecy around figures.
He said: “Scottish Liberal Democrats have consistently called for a national effort to speed up vaccination efforts. If that means spending money to secure the right premises, then so be it. We will more than recoup the costs if it allows us to open up in a safe fashion more quickly.
"What is troubling is that the SNP'S default setting is secrecy. I don't see what grounds there could possibly be for not letting the public know what the facilities they are paying for are costing.”
In total, at least £13.5 million has been or will be spent on vaccination centres by the Scottish government as part of its biggest logistical effort in history, based on the handful of health boards who responded in full to the FOIS.
The Scotsman estimates, based on the average cost of the venues which provided figures, the total figure will be at least £17m and likely far higher based on the vaccination programme lasting until the end of October.
The Scottish government said it was for health boards to decide which locations to use and it would continue to work with them. A spokesperson said: “As we have previously said, any additional costs faced by health boards from the largest vaccination programme ever undertaken in Scotland are being met by the Scottish Government.”