Boots to offer 12 minute Covid test

If Boots can do this, why cannot this government roll this test out across the country?

And if they did, couldn't the government reopen hospitality to anyone with a certificate saying they don't have the virus? That would solve a lot of problems in that industry surely?

Shame on Boots for profiteering though, £120 for the test-it should be FREE!

 

Look at the error rate for it

 

Imagine if instead of wasting billions on all sorts of different things they just made sure everyone in the country could take one of these tests so we could get back to normal.

 

Where is that info ST?
If a test is unreliable it shouldn't be allowed at all, never mind being charged £120

 

but if i go to boots, have the test, get a neg result then catch it on the way back to the car park off some random stranger then i suddenly become "typhoid mary" in the club

 

Don’t get why anyone would do this?
When we did ours, ordered on Thursday dinner, result back by Saturday night, surely no one needs one that quick.

 

It was on the BBC website but has now been removed and replaced with the sentence "Trials suggest it is accurate enough to spot cases, although, like any Covid test, there are some false results meaning they are not 100% reliable"

It said it was correct 97 out of 100 times. Doesn't that mean it's incorrect roughly 1 in 33 times?

 

For comparison someone at work ordered a test Friday afternoon, got results back the following Thursday. It was negative but meant that both adults in the family had to sit at home unable to go to work for almost a week. A loss of about £500 for them.

 

I disagree that Boots shouldn't be charging for it. They shouldn't be expected to foot the bill for something the government should be doing more effectively. Whilst £120 sounds steep, it is of course the individuals choice whether to get one done with Boots or not.

 

Current NHS one detects around 70% according to ouh.nhs.uk

I took a test on Thursday and didn't get the results until Sunday evening. I only missed out on a days wages but three days even for sleepy ol Norfolk is unacceptable.

 

£120, wtaf!

Free testing being done at test centre in CourtHouse Car Park, admittedly you don't don't get the result for 24 hours, but even so!

EDIT, I actually got the result in less than that, as I remember now I received the email in the wee small hours so that I had it by the time I woke up. Oh, and the test was done on a Sunday afternoon

 

mad I understand it the tests being used by the NHS cost less than £10 per test.

 

#

You forgot add "subject to availability"..

 

This will do more harm than good. If you're symptomatic you'll get a free test. So it will only be used for asymptomatic tests. Estimates suggest that in recent weeks there are maybe c.250,000 people who have covid at any given point. Let's say 80% are asymptomatic, that's 200,000 asymptomatic people who have it.

On this basis if the test is 97% accurate then, if you get a positive test, your chances of actually having covid will be just under 10%

 

It's due to the fact that the chance of having it in the first place is so low. Conditional probability in these sort of situations can produce results which appear counterintuitive.

It's easiest to see with a worked example. Let's take a representative sample of 300 people. Based on there being 200,000 asymptomatic positives out of a population of 60m, 1 of the 300 will have it. If they all take a test there will be 3% false positives, so likely 10 people in addition to the infected person will test positive. So if you have a positive test your odds of having the disease will be about 1 in 11.

So the vast majority of positives from these tests will lead to people unnecessarily self-isolating and then wrongly perceiving themselves to have some form of immunity, which is a pretty bad outcome. Particularly given that people who pay for a test when asymptomatic probably need it due to the nature of their employment and may be around vulnerable people.

 

As I understand it it's for people who haven't got symptoms. So then, I haven't got covid, here's £120. That's right Sir you haven't, thank you.

 

Thats how I understand it , whats the point , you take the test & cough up £120 to confirm you are clear , do you pay it again next week & the next week & the next week , unless you have the symptoms it is pointless .