Two for the Enquiry: The Testing Chaos

How misuse and poor management of a sensitive molecular test led to mass psychosis and uncertain case numbers: The Long Read

We first started asking questions about PCR testing in 2020. We published our review on viral cultures for COVID-19 infectivity assessment in August 2020. We updated it four times and concluded that a binary (Yes/No) approach to the interpretation of PCR would result in misdiagnosis and possible segregation of large numbers of people who are no longer infectious and hence not a threat to public health.

We offer no apologies for labouring this point: we’ve already questioned whether mass testing for Covid-19 could do more harm than good and whether it’s the end of clinical medicine as we know it.