There you have it @tallback. He asked you and if you canât tell him how it should be done then heâs right and it shouldnât be used.
Open and shut.
No, the results are only valid between 15 and 30 minutes after you shove the q-tip up your nose (or run it under the tap).
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Wrong, wrong and wrong.
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Keep projecting.
Wrong again.
26,068 UK cases today. This day last week it was 16,025.
All the reasons youâve found not to use antigen tests are simply wrong.
Increased PCR test capacity? Weâre not using our capacity.
Canât be rolled out overnight? Iâm sure hundreds of thousands could be procured quite quickly actually.
Has to be above board? Depends on the context. Home testing is simple and useful.
So: wrong, wrong and wrong.
Hundreds of thousands can be procured quickly? Youâd need minimum 400k done in one day. Every day.
If you told anyone two years ago that youâd need to be tested before leaving the house safely youâd be rightly referred for psychiatric evaluation.
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Straw man.
The fact that NPHET failed to include the updated NIAC advice re AZ/Janssen in their modelling is at best incompetent and, at worst, downright sinister.
They waited until the 11th hour to deliver their missive to government, by which point this would have been known to them.
This raises serious questions about their competence/credibility/intentions.
Will our government raise these questions in a meaningful fashion? Will they fuck.
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I think @Bandage said it on another thread but there have been enough mentions of Delta variant worry to know what was coming.
I think the 11th hour line is slightly disingenuous tbh.
With the rise of Delta cases worldwide and our seemingly mental aggression to MHQ this was always going to take hold here as it has done in the UK.
Weâre generally fucked in this shite game while the Brits dick around.
Whatâs NPHETâs long game here? Weâre in the middle of summer now, weather is decent, less than 50 in hospital with it and they still want restrictions on travel, pubs and restaurants shut and paltry crowds at concerts/matches.
As Holohan himself admitted today they wanted no reopening of hospitality until the end of September âat leastâ, which could well happen anyway. Then youâll have the schools back and before you know it the winter overcrowding will decimate the hospitals again. Can easily see the current restrictions being in place until well into next year.
Spring 2022 might have been their goal all alongâŚ
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Holohan has to go and this why no decision should have been taken after a couple of hours panicked discussion.
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Steady on.
The decision hadnât been made by NIAC at the time. Also it only moves the prediction of an end to this wave from end of September to the end of August - potentially.
But if it wasnât approved why would he have included it? Surely down to our cabinet to take that into account and ask for two models or a new one generated today. Real issue here is our cabinet did not ask or did not know this. What a shitfight
A couple of thoughts in no particular order
An antigen testing program doesnât look to replace PCR. I think rightly that PCR is the gold standard and is more sensitive. Antigenâs advantages is speed, relative cost and that it can be both self-administered and professionally administered. You therefore use it where you otherwise couldnât use PCR.
I think it should only be some approved tests. There are a lot of brands out there and only some have an acceptable performance so the first thing would be to ensure what is available is proper. If possible Iâd look to have a saliva based antigen option as it is easier to deploy.
I think Iâd be testing widely at events using professional teams. This would be state subsidised. This would be with a view to allowing more events to take place and/or at greater capacity.
Iâd make free professional testing hubs available in every large town/city, travel hub where anyone could walk in for a free test. At the same time their swab could be taken for PCR too. High risk workplaces could be targeted for regular testing programs.
This would take substantial resources but when you consider the cost of continued shutdown I think it may prove attractive.
I think any program would have to accept some missed cases but that the benefit of catching others is worth it. I think any program would have to accept there will be some people who look to game the system but on the whole the Irish people have shown themselves largely adherent to guidelines and I think would buy into using antigen and accepting the known issues ie a neg doesnât def mean neg if they were communicated clearly.
As an aside Iâd invest significantly into our genomic sequencing capacity (used to detect variants) - weâre far behind the like of UK in this regard.
Your first point has some merit, although seeing as itâs scenario planning youâd like to think theyâre using models to assess the most effective vaccine roll-out plans.
Iâm not sure Iâd agree with the second although I havenât seen the numbers. By definition the later stages of an exponential surge are going to contain most cases etc so reducing a wave by a month could be massive in terms of end result
Not sure - I think I heard NIAC say itâs approved for over 16s and theyâre looking at data for over 12s