Coronavirus: ‘Time for re-think on testing’

If anything has been proven in recent weeks, it’s that thread of life is more delicate than we would like to admit. New numbers of the diagnosed and the deceased appear on our television screens and in our newspapers daily; behind each number is a human being and their connections to their family, their friends, their community.

Each loss is irreplaceable.

By the time this article is published, estimates suggest that nearly 20,000 people will have passed away due to the coronavirus.

We must act to save as many lives as possible. To this end, it is incumbent on us all to ask questions to ensure that the administration takes a deep breath and thinks more carefully about its plans. One casualty of a crisis can be rational thought: when caught up in the here and now, it’s sometimes easy to lose focus on important detail.

For example, the government appears to be struggling to supply PPE to our brave NHS staff.

It is the topic of conversation in the media. However, where is the PPE for those who are working in our care homes? It is clear that our care homes are a point of vulnerability: we have a large number of elderly people in confined spaces. We need to take lessons from America: one care home in New Jersey was recently discovered to have 17 dead of the virus.

This suggests we need to get the PPE to the homes as soon as possible: furthermore, we need to look after the staff. If they fall ill, who will replace them? We owe the generation living in these homes a better fate than unintended neglect and illness: many of them served our country in its hour of need, saving it from fascist tyranny when it was at our doorstep.

I am also concerned about the testing, or lack thereof. The current target of 100,000 tests per day doesn’t appear achievable. Reports in the media have suggested that the tests which had been procured don’t work as advertised.

The countries which appear ready to leave lockdown, such as Austria and South Korea, appear to have the most widespread and thorough testing. Without this, there simply isn’t enough data for the government to judge whether it is safe to leave lockdown or not; it can only estimate where the hotspots are and guess what the effect of opening the country would be.

We are all in this together. We need to think carefully about how to move forward. I hope the administration will pause, think, then act.