The sooner we can all be tested, the faster this hell will be over
MUCH, much more coronavirus testing is vital to check its spread, help our NHS and get our economy back on track. It is shocking news that one-in-four doctors is off sick with the suspected illness when prompt testing could quickly assure us all that they do not pose a threat to their patients.
With more than 10,000 sufferers in our hospitals and a total death toll so far of 1,789, more medics are needed every day. Some 5,000 doctors and nurses are bravely coming out of retirement to help but with 25 per cent of current doctors self-isolating there is a worrying shortfall. To put it bluntly, more testing means more lives saved.
The UK Government has pledged 25,000 tests a day but is still not hitting that target.
NHS staff should be at the top of the list for testing as it means they can get back to the frontline more speedily.
Knowing who is fit or not to work is essential not only for the NHS but the wider economy. The sooner people know they’ve had the virus and are OK to get back to work the better for us all.
Germany was quick off the mark to test its citizens and that has helped slash their death rate, enabling them to track and contain virus spreaders. Half a million tests a week were achieved quickly and they’re aiming at 200,000 a day.
SOUTH Korea and Singapore, having learned from previous Asian pandemics, were faster to test their populations too and slowed their rate of infections. Sweden has used testing more selectively but has decided to keep more day-to-day businesses open, such as cafes.
Equally important as testing people with suspected coronavirus is checking if they’ve had it and are now immune. Antibody tests could be a gamechanger. They could reveal large numbers of our population have recovered from the illness and can usefully re-enter society.
Social distancing is a blunt instrument that cannot go on for more than a few weeks.
The damage to our economy is incalculable and with its impact on our physical and mental health, many are quite rightly claiming the “cure is worse than the disease”. It was a good idea to slow the initial rate of infection so the NHS is not overwhelmed but this is not sustainable in the longer term.
Normality must return to our high streets as soon as possible otherwise jobs and businesses will be lost for ever.
Hopefully that will happen by the early summer but inevitably that will lead to a resurgence of the virus as social contact increases.
Much more testing is a more precise weapon that could be deployed to flatten this second wave. Antibody testing could also reveal all those thousands of Britons who have had it, suffered only mildly and can easily get back to work.
Prince Charles could lead the hordes of survivors back into productive pursuits.
The Government blames a global lack of available testing kits for its slowness, plus a shortage of swabs and essential chemicals. But with world leading scientists and universities, the UK should really be at the forefront of this research and production.
Coronavirus is simply a variant of Sars that also originated in China and swept around the globe a decade ago.
We can’t say we hadn’t been warned and we should have been better prepared.
With a vaccine still some months away, if not a year in the future, far wider testing for coronavirus and its antibodies is by far the best weapon to deploy. That way we can isolate those who need help and must be kept away from the general public, while those now immune can return to our shops and factories.
Lives must be saved, especially those of the elderly and vulnerable, but we must also be cleverer in protecting society.
If our economy tanks, there will not be the taxes to fund our wonderful health service.
The Government can’t afford to nationalise all our industries and businesses. The benefits system cannot pay us all billions of pounds to be off work.
MORE testing is the answer to saving our health service and maintaining our productive lives. All priority must be given to keeping the UK healthy and prosperous. The miracle of building the 4,000bed Nightingale hospital in just two weeks must be matched by a national effort to dramatically step up testing every one of us.
The sooner that is achieved, the sooner this nightmare will be over.
Scientists and those producing testing kits are as much our new heroes as doctors and nurses.
‘If our economy tanks, there will not be the taxes to fund the NHS’