Lord Snooty has woken up.

O

Ollygon

Well-known member
The Leader of the House of Commons has criticised people for "carping" about the problems with getting COVID tests.

He apparently told MPs that people should instead celebrate the "phenomenal success" of increasing test capacity.

Now there is a man of the people!
 
Just over a week ago, you could have turned up at a Government test site without an appointment....Then they changed it and you must register and get a QR code to get the test

Now......90% of the static sites and 100% of the mobile sites are just standing around doing nothing and getting 5 or 6 cars an hour while turning away triple that in walk ins.
The booking system is appalling.....it's almost like the government is manipulating the release of appointments.....🤔
Maybe they don't want to see more positive tests coming through......????

Whoever set up this online appointment system.....they need to lose their job.....
 
B Side nothing would surprise me

The drive in ones are working well below capacity

Try booking a dummy appointment ( you don't have to go through with it ) and see the nonsense it throws up

I got Whitehaven and then Inverness when I tried 😂
 
And the site at the Capitol centre in Preston has 3 individual test lanes and the capacity for 200 cars an hour.
And I know of someone who travelled from Liverpool to Nelson for a test......passing 3 static sites and (probably) 6 or 7 mobile sites to get there.....

Believe me....even the staff cant believe whats happening with this booking site.

Little tip.....all appointments are relesed on the day on an hour to hour basis.......and there is an active mobile site in Bispham tomorrow from 10.30am
 
Little tip.....all appointments are relesed on the day on an hour to hour basis.......and there is an active mobile site in Bispham tomorrow from 10.30am

And what's the betting no one in Blackpool will be able to get a booking there ?
 
TwelveAngryMen said:
And what's the betting no one in Blackpool will be able to get a booking there ?
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I would say it's a nailed on certainty.......someone from Stockport or Darlington will be making the journey.

But if anyone wants to try.....at least you know where to ask for....and this is what you will need (but not this one)
qr.png this is just an example
 
Dido or whatever her name is now trying to justify the under-utilised testing centres by saying they can't process the ones they have safely and so are having to restrict testing

Surely she can see the flaw - capacity only works if you can process the tests you purport to be able to accommodate
 
TwelveAngryMen said:
Dido or whatever her name is now trying to justify the under-utilised testing centres by saying they can't process the ones they have safely and so are having to restrict testing

Surely she can see the flaw - capacity only works if you can process the tests you purport to be able to accommodate
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I think I heard somewhere that a lot of the people who were processing the tests were academics who’d gone back to University.
 
Somebody who tested positively recently told me that the test pin points the day it was contracted
TwelveAngryMen said:
Little tip.....all appointments are relesed on the day on an hour to hour basis.......and there is an active mobile site in Bispham tomorrow from 10.30am

And what's the betting no one in Blackpool will be able to get a booking there ?
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That explains why my lad, who lives in Lancaster, was initially offered Wallasey and Leicester initially, but 90 minutes later Morecambe and Blackpool!

He was refused a test at Lancaster Royal even though he works there and was due on shift 48 hours later.

Rees-Mogg`s affected accent and mannerisms allow him to infer a patina of sophistication and intelligence; if he talked in a Yarkshire accent and were from Bradfort, he would be more easily exposed for the strawman he is...
 
I was sent a letter by the NHS last week to volunteer to be part of an antibody testing research study by Imperial College in London and Ipsos / Mori. Got the testing package (finger prick blood test) a couple of days ago and did it last night. Result was available within 15 minutes. Sent the result, a photo of the test kit and completed a questionnaire all online. It will give them a much better understanding of Covid and its population dynamics.
I tested negative for antibodies, but expected that because I have been careful because by wife has asthma.
If you get invited to be part of these studies I would encourage you to participate. We all need to fight this pandemic together
 
bfcpete said:
I was sent a letter by the NHS last week to volunteer to be part of an antibody testing research study by Imperial College in London and Ipsos / Mori. Got the testing package (finger prick blood test) a couple of days ago and did it last night. Result was available within 15 minutes. Sent the result, a photo of the test kit and completed a questionnaire all online. It will give them a much better understanding of Covid and its population dynamics.
I tested negative for antibodies, but expected that because I have been careful because by wife has asthma.
If you get invited to be part of these studies I would encourage you to participate. We all need to fight this pandemic together
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That’s the same one my daughter has been invited to 👍
Waiting for test kit to arrive as we have a been ill and her mum in law has tested positive as have people in our office.
Curious indeed 🥴
 
Back to the O/P, when are people going to wake up to the utter clusterfxck that is testing in the UK at the moment? I heard a figure yesterday that despite the headline figures only 62000 people were tested in the previous 24 hours. All the Government does is blame the public for wanting tests, when they have encouraged everyone to do exactly that. Dido Harding, who as a reward for not sorting track and trace was given Public Health England, is about as effective a leader as Mr Bean. This should transcend politics, but the usual apologists will be on here lauding their plum accented betters
 
very crafty from SPI B behavioural team. Now the public demand for tests begins,demands for a test that is picking up fragments of old non infectious virus and RNA and keeping us in this constant cycle.
 
Ormergod said:
It was brought up in todays science and technology committee which you can view here

Parliamentlive.tv

Science and Technology Committee
parliamentlive.tv parliamentlive.tv
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Yeah, saw that but Dawn Butler didn't give any details and Baroness Harding said "I'm afraid that is simply not true".

Having looked further it seems to have come from the Sunday Times citing a leaked report, but I can't find any further information on it so it's impossible to test how accurate the claim is.
 
You only have to look at the drone footage of row after row of empty testing stations to know that we aren’t working anywhere near capacity
It’s misleading spin
 
The hold up is in the laboratories not the testing centres. The tests only last a certain time so it's no use testing a million people if only 200k can be processed in the labs. Apparently two new 'mega-labs' are opening in the next few weeks which should increase capacity. Reports suggest that the number of children being tested are up 50% as parents are worried about potential spreading in schools. Apparently one school recommended a whole year of pupils should be tested because of a suspected case.
 
There is no way they are doing 200k per day
And I’m not buying that excuse
It was bloody obvious that if you want to test the numbers these facilities are geared up for you have to be able to process the tests you’ve developed capacity for
It’s gross incompetence
 
Ollygon said:
The Leader of the House of Commons has criticised people for "carping" about the problems with getting COVID tests.

He apparently told MPs that people should instead celebrate the "phenomenal success" of increasing test capacity.

Now there is a man of the people!
Click to expand...
Absolutely. I think that at 8 o‘clock every Thursday Night we should all stand out side and clap and rattle pans in celebration of their phenomenal success. You know a bit like they do things in North Korea or Russia or China
 
You have to wonder what it is they are so keen to hide: pure incompetence or something more deep rooted relating to bigger political issues?
 
TwelveAngryMen said:
It was bloody obvious that if you want to test the numbers these facilities are geared up for you have to be able to process the tests you’ve developed capacity for
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With respect, I think that's just plain wrong.

The testing centres are never going to be operated at full capacity across the country because the demand is likely to vary wildly by region depending upon local conditions and outbreaks, so while the testing stations in some areas are stretched at the moment in other parts of the country there is lots of spare capacity that isn't being utilised.

Thus, if you match your lab capacity to your test station capacity you will end up with maybe as much as 50% of your lab capacity unused.

And because lab capacity is the real limiting factor in scaling up testing it should be obvious that it makes far more sense to have excess and unused station capacity than it does to have excess and unused lab capacity.
 
There is some good news though. Eton College got all their pupils tested before they went back to school.
 
Lost Seasider said:
With respect, I think that's just plain wrong.

The testing centres are never going to be operated at full capacity across the country because the demand is likely to vary wildly by region depending upon local conditions and outbreaks, so while the testing stations in some areas are stretched at the moment in other parts of the country there is lots of spare capacity that isn't being utilised.

Thus, if you match your lab capacity to your test station capacity you will end up with maybe as much as 50% of your lab capacity unused.

And because lab capacity is the real limiting factor in scaling up testing it should be obvious that it makes far more sense to have excess and unused station capacity than it does to have excess and unused lab capacity.
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Well all I keep hearing ad nauseam from the Gov't is that we are leading the world in our test capacity which is seemingly advanced on the premises of calculations based on test stations working at or close to capacity - Rees Mogg in Parliament and Nahawi on Question Time being the latest

Just scanned the Times that has this as it's headline story

Government laboratories that are processing coronavirus tests use cumbersome techniques, are running out of staff and have failed to set up automatic processes before a second wave, The Times has been told.

A scientist who has toured the facilities said he was appalled as it became clear that the labs were increasingly struggling to cope with demand.

On Question Time Fiona Bruce quoted the latest govt statistics confirmed 81,000 completed tests against a claimed capacity of 250,000 - so less than a third

Clearly all this public backslapping is wholly unwarranted

And what exactly would be the point of manning all these facilities to the hilt if you are then going to severely restrict access ?

The truth is someone has dropped a huge bollock - again
 
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Is this this the same Dido Harding who was chief executive of TalkTalk when it was fined £400,000 for "security failings" which led to 157,000 customers' personal data being stolen?
 
TwelveAngryMen said:
Well all I keep hearing ad nauseam from the Gov't is that we are leading the world in our test capacity which is seemingly advanced on the premises of calculations based on test stations working at or close to capacity
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This is what the official website says:

Testing capacity is a projection based on reports from labs on how many tests they have capacity to carry out each day based on availability of staff and resources.

So again, clearly this is lab capacity and not testing station capacity that is being talked about, also, for Wednesday:

Daily tests processed (pillars 1 & 2)223,143
Lab capacity (pillars 1 & 2)242,911

Which shows the labs working at about 91.9% of capacity, exactly as described.


TwelveAngryMen said:
Just scanned the Times that has this as it's headline story

Government laboratories that are processing coronavirus tests use cumbersome techniques, are running out of staff and have failed to set up automatic processes before a second wave, The Times has been told.

A scientist who has toured the facilities said he was appalled as it became clear that the labs were increasingly struggling to cope with demand.
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Which is less surprising when you consider that the current capacity is an emergency response cobbled together using whatever resources were available at break-neck speed and if they'd waited for something better we'd probably still be doing < 10,000 tests a day.

Also, watching the S&TSC hearings yesterday, it seems that the plan for 500,000 capacity by the end of next month involves much more automation and better processes, so it seems that this is a problem that has been understood and adressed months ago and we're in a transition period between the old emergency capacity and the newer more more modern planned capacity.



TwelveAngryMen said:
On Question Time Fiona Bruce quoted the latest govt statistics confirmed 81,000 completed tests against a claimed capacity of 250,000 - so less than a third
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There's a discussion about this on the QT thread so I won't repeat it here, short version is that nobody can work out where this claim has come from and it certainly doesn't correspond with any government stats that I can find.
 
Spizz Tony said:
Is this this the same Dido Harding who was chief executive of TalkTalk when it was fined £400,000 for "security failings" which led to 157,000 customers' personal data being stolen?
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Could be...married to a Tory MP, John Penrose. I'm sure it was a fair and open competition when she was selected as being ideal to head up the replacement to Public Health England, based on her excellent work in setting up the world beating track and trace system we have now.

In the past, she has spoken out on female representation on company boards. Doesn't agree with it, also there's too much maternity leave.
 
Wizaard said:
Could be...married to a Tory MP, John Penrose. I'm sure it was a fair and open competition when she was selected as being ideal to head up the replacement to Public Health England, based on her excellent work in setting up the world beating track and trace system we have now.

In the past, she has spoken out on female representation on company boards. Doesn't agree with it, also there's too much maternity leave.
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Baroness Harding was appointed as head of PHE without any competition; a decision made by the relevant minister.

It is only a temporary position until the government have time to arrange formal interviews of prospective candidates for the job.

She is a member of the board of the Jockey Club which oversees the annual Cheltenham Racing Festival.

Some people thought it very questionable that 300,000 people were allowed to meet at a sporting event, mingle, then disperse throughout the country, only a matter of days before a national lock down as the seriousness of Covid-19 came into stark focus (for some anyway).

Harding may have thought otherwise...
 
And shes outsourcing the contracts to private companies for the two new lighthouse labs that are opening. £££££££££££
 
Mexboroseasider said:
Whenever there’s a crisis there’s an opportunity 👍
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J Dog`s father, William Rees-Mogg, actually co-authored a book based on that very axiom: `Blood on the streets - investment profits in a world gone mad.`

Basically it was making the case that the best time to buy was when `blood was running in the streets` - parroting a Rothschild observation.

For `blood in the street`, read `Brexit`, and the penny may drop for some as to why Rees-Mogg, and his ilk, are so keen on all this chaos.

And it ain`t "cheaper shoes and food for the peasants" as he once claimed...
 
Contract worth £200m to implement Brexit checks on goods in the Irish Sea just awarded to a consortium headed by ...... Fujitsu 😂

But who else has their snouts in a trough full of taxpayer money?

I think we should be told. And I expect we shall be.
 
Mexboroseasider said:
Contract worth £200m to implement Brexit checks on goods in the Irish Sea just awarded to a consortium headed by ...... Fujitsu 😂

But who else has their snouts in a trough full of taxpayer money?

I think we should be told. And I expect we shall be.
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But surely it is just a mere coincidence that the CEO of Fujitsu is Michael Keegan - the husband of Gillian Keegan - the Conservative MP for Chichester?
 
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