(Thread) Few thoughts on Liverpool’s mass testing plan. It isn’t controversial. If, at a bare minimum, it detects a few hundred asymptomatic cases, that has the potential to crush the rate of infection (1) @LivEchonews

Some have suggested the rise in positive cases would become a mandate for further/longer lockdown. That is clearly wrong. Public health bodies measure a number of things other than the number of new infections, including the percentage of overall tests that come back positive (2)

There has been talk of false positives. In area with high infection rates, this is not a significant issue. Less than 0.8% of positive tests are believed to be false. On a simple level, you don’t get admitted to hospital without the virus, and hospital admissions have surged (3)

Some point out that you can be infected the moment you walk out of the testing centre. This is obviously true, but misses the point. The point is to catch asymptomatic or mild infections before they can spread, driving down the rate of infection. (4)

Some have suggested the money would be better spent elsewhere. However, rapid, mass scale testing could be a game changer that helps brings normality, with its economic and health benefits, back within reach. It is a shame the UK was too slow to realise this