(04-15-2021, 11:36 AM)Brentbaggie Wrote: What about the mass testing as a result of the South African variant surfacing in south London? Do you think that this may be a good idea? I'm not being prescriptive, I merely ask whether in that particular situation it makes sense to mass test to try and determine how widespread this particular variant has become before it gets much worse?
I think it's very difficult to know. If we're testing for a specific new variant then there's a possibility that the accuracy of tests will be lower due to the rate at which these tests have been developed.
It depends on the resources but if we could mass test an area using a rapid test and then retest the positives with a more rigorous method (assuming there are not too many) then I don't see a problem with this approach. We'd at least get more accurate results.
A countrywide testing program though is monumentally flawed
I guess the argument on the flip side is that if your main goal is to find everyone with a new variant, mass testing will pretty much do this, however it will also find quite a few that don't have it.