Quote Originally Posted by Mike T View Post
Those who are asymptomatic are having the "lateral flow" test. I have had a look around to try and find its false negative rate, and the commonest figure seemed to be 30%.

There is this, from the BMJ: " A preliminary evaluation from Porton Down and Oxford University9 throws little light on its performance in asymptomatic people or in the field. It suggests the test misses between one in two and one in four cases."
The theory that the PCR test is attended only by symptomatic folk is just wrong. It's certainly wrong in Blackburn as I know people who have booked on without symptoms over a period of 3 months.
I've asked some why they've done it. Just to know seems to be the main reason, although I suspect one or two of them fancied a couple of weeks off work.
One bloke at my wife's work had a test because his daughter had a runny nose.

Consider this Mike - you talk of the False Negative rate, with the False Positive rate of 0.8% you can go out and test 100,000 people.
You will get 800 positive tests.

Do you know what the top rate is at the moment?

It's Kingston upon Hull. The rate is 754 per 100,000.

A Covid free area could top the National Chart.

We can never escape this until they wake up from their trance.