Innova defends itself -- Excerpt from another arti
Post# of 22454
"'The test manufacturers only recommend the Innova lateral flow test for use by qualified medical practitioners and in people with symptoms, yet the Department of Health and Social Care is pushing ahead with use in symptomless people, with the test performed by untrained staff or as a self test.' (Note- the point is to find infectious people who are not showing symptoms!)
But Professor Jose Vazquez-Boland, an infectious disease expert at the University of Edinburgh, argued: 'We must be clear that the only way to control the coronavirus and attempt its eradication is to immediately identify asymptomatics, as close as possible to “real-time”, to rapidly isolate them and progressively reduce the prevalence and spread of the virus across the population. (Note: Innova Antigen tests can find the most infectious in the first few days of their shedding virus.)
'Mass regular [coronavirus] screening must be rolled out without further delay, across the whole UK in a coordinated effort, to focus interventions only on asymptomatic transmitters and avoid the ill effects of indiscriminate restriction measures in society and the economy.' (note: Innova has the ability to supply the high number of tests needed to do mass testing.)
A spokesperson for Innova told MailOnline: 'DHSC is branding the test as they are working towards more flexible use of the test and we are happy to support the UK in all manners to which the test is appropriate for use.
'The instructions for use were originally written around symptomatic patients as that is how the test was firstly deployed.
'Since then, we are constantly evolving and finding the test to have greater than 85 per cent sensitivity in people with infectious viral loads, regardless of symptoms, when used correctly.
'On the self-testing, we at Innova are highly focused on helping people use the test correctly from an operational support perspective.
'The test performs extremely well when used correctly. Thusly, Innova is preparing to launch simple instructional videos to assist in self-testing operations. We are also going to launch a self-guided artificial intelligence application to guide people on proper use while performing the test.'
The company added: 'The Liverpool data is not necessarily the most accurate representation. There is forthcoming information which will place the Liverpool pilot into better context.
'On the symptomatic versus asymptomatic we are highly confident that the Innova test performs extremely well for capturing infectious people, especially when used as antigen tests should be used, in several times per week applications where it catches the infected person as their viral load increased and they become infectious to others.'
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9127...-test.html