MILLIONS of antibody tests bought by the British government “can’t be trusted” despite Prime Minister Boris Johnson describing them as “game changing”.
Doctors have now questioned how good the tests are and what the results actually mean.
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Last month the government purchased 10 million of the test kits from Abbott and Roche after studies from Public Health England found they were effective.
Now in a letter to the British Medical Journal (BMJ) a group of physicians and senior clinical academics have claimed there is no valid clinical reason for the large scale testing which is being carried out.
Baroness Dido Harding, who heads up the NHS test-and-trace-programme said not enough is known about the level of protection such tests provide.
This is while Professor Jon Deeks, who led the first systematic review of studies on Covid antibody tests said: "We don't have much data and we can't trust any of it."
So far in the UK over 43,000 people have died from the virus, but experts argue the antibody tests “do not indicate immunity”.
They said the concept of so-called immunity passports which would allow people to work have also not yet been established.
Reader in microbial pathogenesis at the University of Bath Andrew Preston however said the idea of the antibody tests being used to create these immunity passports was “attractive”, but said using them would be “some way off”.
The tests, they say, have been rolled out at an unprecedented pace and scale without the correct assessment.
What people really want to know from these tests is - am I safe from infection?
Al Edwards
Before purchasing the tests from Roche the government had reportedly sent £16 million on tests that were later found to be ineffective.
Roche has not revealed the details of the UK deal.
They also highlighted that there is no performance data to indicate how effective the tests are for high risk patients such as those in the BAME community or elderly patients.
The NHS has been pushed to the brink due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the experts claim that this push to introduce non-evidence based tests is an “inefficient use of scarce resources”.
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"We would like to see a carefully developed and clearly articulated strategy for serological testing, with clear scientific or clinical aims (or both) as part of a unified Covid-19 response strategy," they said.
This is while it might not just be the accuracy of the tests that is concerning.
Sheila Bird from Edinburgh University's College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine said there are several issues with PHE’s evaluation of the tests.
She said these include the use of repeat samples, the absence of data on sex and age as well as the quality of the samples.
Roche Diagnostics UK told the BMJ that they are rolling out the tests as a “crucial next step” in understanding the spread of the virus, adding that the tests would provide greater confidence and reassurance as the UK moves into the next stages of the pandemic.
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A PHE spokesperson said: "Our evaluations have been completed in record time using the samples and tests that were available to us. We are confident that the volume of samples and methodology was of a high standard."
Al Edwards, associate professor in Biomedical Technology at Reading University said: "What people really want to know from these tests is - am I safe from infection?
"These tests, at the moment, can't answer that."
In a statement to The BMJ, the Department of Health and Social Care said: "We do not currently know how long an antibody response to the virus lasts, nor whether having antibodies means a person cannot transmit it to others."
They added that the antibody tests will play an “increasingly important role”.
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https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiWWh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LnRoZXN1bi5jby51ay9uZXdzLzExOTQ5NDUxL3Rlbi1taWxsaW9uLWFudGlib2R5LXRlc3RzLWJvdWdodC1jYW50LWJlLXRydXN0ZWQv0gFdaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cudGhlc3VuLmNvLnVrL25ld3MvMTE5NDk0NTEvdGVuLW1pbGxpb24tYW50aWJvZHktdGVzdHMtYm91Z2h0LWNhbnQtYmUtdHJ1c3RlZC9hbXAv?oc=5
2020-06-25 10:39:28Z
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