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The UK government rejected the opportunity to purchase tens of thousands of potentially “game-changing” coronavirus tests from an award-winning British scientist just days after Matt Hancock promised to reach 100,000 tests per day in late April.
As the UK appears to miss its target, The Guardian may reveal that the government rejected an offer nearly four weeks ago to buy large quantities of the U.S.-approved home test kits from a company that tests for strength. from the United States and the states of Florida and Alaska.
California-based company Curative offered to supply 50,000 saliva tests a week immediately, with the potential to increase this to 50,000 tests per day. On the day of the offer, April 4, the UK had the capacity to do just 15,499 tests a day and I was just testing 8,651 people a day, much lower than other European nations like Germany.
The missed opportunity comes when the UK remains under severe pressure due to an apparent lack of its ability to follow a “test and track” strategy. Experts have said that the UK should not end the blockade without developing a clear strategy to eliminate the virus through mass testing.
Monday, the last day for which figures are available, only 43,453 tests They were held by 29,000 people, while the daily capacity of 73,400 remains well below the target of 100,000, which the government promised to reach on Thursday. Currently, the government can only provide 5,000 home test kits per day, but said it is “increasing” this capacity.
The curative test, which has been approved by the US Food and Drug Agency. USA (FDA), it is less invasive and easier to use than currently preferred nasal swabs in the UK, as they only require a sample of saliva from inside the mouth, rather than deep into the back of the throat or the nose.
The two-minute test is self-administered and can be used at home unsupervised, eliminating the need for potential Covid-19 victims to drive to the test facility. It also alleviates some pressure on NHS personnel, who must wear full personal protective equipment (PPE) to oversee current testing. The results are analyzed in the USA. USA And they are emailed within 72 hours, Curative said.
The first studies in the USA The US, including one from Yale University, has found the saliva test to be as accurate, if not more, than the nasal swab test, and some scientists have called it a “game changer.”
Curative is rapidly expanding its testing in the US. USA And it currently provides testing for the US Air Force. USA, as well as for the states of Florida and Alaska, and the city of Los Angeles. He says he performs almost a quarter of all tests in California.
Philip Beales, a professor at the University College London Children’s Health Institute, who has been helping to coordinate the efforts of UK testing companies, said that saliva tests like those provided by Curative “could really get us out of this nightmare epidemiological “.
In the USA In the US, experts have predicted that saliva testing will allow three times as many tests to be performed per day and reduce the need for PPE by up to 90%. Officials in Oklahoma and New Jersey plan to roll out saliva tests in the coming days, the Washington Post reported.
The so-called “next generation” saliva test was developed in just 10 days earlier this year by Curative, which is led by Fred Turner, 25, who won the EU contest for young scientists in 2013.
The Yorkshire-born scientist was named Young British Engineer of the Year in the same year when, at age 17, he built a DNA machine from his room to find out if he had the “ginger gene,” after ruthless teasing from his peers. about why brother had red hair and brown hair. He turned his attention to the coronavirus when the pandemic took hold in January.
Turner’s company contacted the UK government to offer its tests on April 4, two days after Hancock’s promise of 100,000 tests a day. He received a brief response from an unidentified official three days later to say that the government was not interested because Curative’s evidence was “undifferentiated against the existing portfolio of evidence.”
However, the response has caused confusion because the UK is not believed to have any of the next-generation saliva tests, as officials have focused on nasopharyngeal swabs.
When contacted by The Guardian, the Department of Health and Social Assistance said that it already had associations to supply hundreds of thousands of [nasal] Smear tests and I didn’t need more.
Bill Esterson, the shadow international trade minister, said: “The government could have reached its goal of 100,000 weeks ago. Curative gave the government the scientific evidence necessary to demonstrate that it met the specification on April 4. It does not have sense that the government fired them without control ”.
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