NONE of the 17.5 million antibody tests, which were ordered by the UK Government in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, works properly, it has been revealed.
According to the Financial Times, ministers had hoped the tests – which are aimed at showing if someone has previously contracted the virus and could be immune – would give a clearer picture of how many people had actually been infected.
This could have paved the way for the gradual easing of lockdown restrictions.
Researchers at Oxford University, who have been working to assess the tests, said all had proven unreliable.
Professor John Bell, Regius Professor of Medicine at the university (pictured), wrote: “Sadly, the tests we have looked at to date have not performed well.
“We see many false negatives (tests where no antibody is detected despite the fact we know it is there) and we also see false positives.
“None of the tests we have validated would meet the criteria for a good test as agreed with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.
“This is not a good result for test suppliers or for us.”
The Government is working with nine companies which have developed antibody tests, but their failure is an indication that the UK could still be some distance from being able to launch a mass screening programme.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock, who announced the provisional order for 17.5m tests last week, added: “We will only use them if they work.”
Downing Street said that “no test so far has been proved to be good enough to be used”.
Government guidance about its testing plans suggested that if the antibody tests “do not work, no further tests will be purchased and, where possible, orders will be cancelled”.
It had been hoped that at-home testing kits could be rolled out, although medics thought this would not have been appropriate.
Many of the testing kits already on the market claim high accuracy rates, but as they were developed in months, many of their assertions are based on relatively small samples.
Devices must – to be classed as accurate – be able to show the presence in someone’s blood of antibodies specific to coronavirus, as well as identifying antibodies in people who have had milder strains of the disease.
Paul Hunter, a professor of medicine at the University of East Anglia, told the FT: “One of the problems in this sort of work is that you can jump too quickly.
“When you don’t have enough samples you can be misled: 100 tests might look good, but after 20,000 they might not.
“The Government will be working with suppliers both new and old to try and deliver this result so we can scale up antibody testing for the British public.
He added: “This will take at least a month.”
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