https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/ ... e-lockdown

'BARELY FUNCTIONAL' - how damning a criticism is that?

I appreciate that the Tory ideology is that private is always better - so if a pharmaceutical company like GSK or AstraZeneca were setting up the testing labs I could ( at a push seeing as I'm an ureconstructed leftie)accept that they may have the expertise to do so. But who set up the lighthouse Labs? Deloitte, a finance house. Not known for their expertise in clinical pathology, virology or epidemiology. But still they were considered better than say the Crick Institute or Imperial College in London or any of the rehgional university / hospital centres of excellence across the UK.

No involvement of the numerous expert virology and pathology labs around the country in our NHS hospital and our universities. University labs that for the most pert have been mothballed for months because of the pandemic, and which could have been repurposed ( and furloughed / working from home) staff trained to carry out the specific Covid testing.

And to put the cherry on the top Baroness Dido Harding, of the TalkTalk hacking fame, was put in charge of it. A woman who takes failure uselessness to new heights, and I mean beyond Grayling.

And now up to 11 million people, and counting face lockdown. Only a matter of time before it goes nationwide surely as despite the numberof tests performed being reduced the proportion of tests with a positive result rises. I think we are underestimating the level of positive cases as we are currently only testing about 3/4 of the numbers that were being tested earlir in the Summer. When the government's targets were still not being hit, but were a damn sight closer to it than they are now.

The only way to successfully come out of lockdown, reopen schools etc... was to only do so with a functioning test, track and trace system in place. The government has had most of the Spring and all Summer to put this in place but have failed to do so.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/ ... e-lockdown

'BARELY FUNCTIONAL' - how damning a criticism is that?

I appreciate that the Tory ideology is that private is always better - so if a pharmaceutical company like GSK or AstraZeneca were setting up the testing labs I could ( at a push seeing as I'm an ureconstructed leftie)accept that they may have the expertise to do so. But who set up the lighthouse Labs? Deloitte, a finance house. Not known for their expertise in clinical pathology, virology or epidemiology. But still they were considered better than say the Crick Institute or Imperial College in London or any of the rehgional university / hospital centres of excellence across the UK.

No involvement of the numerous expert virology and pathology labs around the country in our NHS hospital and our universities. University labs that for the most pert have been mothballed for months because of the pandemic, and which could have been repurposed ( and furloughed / working from home) staff trained to carry out the specific Covid testing.

And to put the cherry on the top Baroness Dido Harding, of the TalkTalk hacking fame, was put in charge of it. A woman who takes failure uselessness to new heights, and I mean beyond Grayling.

And now up to 11 million people, and counting face lockdown. Only a matter of time before it goes nationwide surely as despite the numberof tests performed being reduced the proportion of tests with a positive result rises. I think we are underestimating the level of positive cases as we are currently only testing about 3/4 of the numbers that were being tested earlir in the Summer. When the government's targets were still not being hit, but were a damn sight closer to it than they are now.

The only way to successfully come out of lockdown, reopen schools etc... was to only do so with a functioning test, track and trace system in place. The government has had most of the Spring and all Summer to put this in place but have failed to do so.