Virtually no testing in Ireland

chka

Can anyone explain to me why we still can't get easily and quickly tested for covid when it was announced there is capacity for hunders of thousands of tests per week? Also, why they're planning to only test 5000 people for antibodies? https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/coronavirus-ireland-to-start-antibody-testing-early-next-month-1.4259083 Even if you're happy to pay to get tested, it's impossible to do so! The government is very happy to take our tax-money and who cares about the service it provides to us!!! It seems the government / specialists only care about not creating depressing news about deaths and new cases

LeYouth

Incompetence?

Bridge93

We're 20th in the world for testing per Capita, 12th of countries with over 1m populations. I agree if the capacity is there testing needs to scale up. But to say virtually none is being done is b****x

drunkmonkey

Ah that's the antibodies test, are you confusing it with normal testing to see if you have it. We don't need to test the whole country.

Away With The Fairies

What's happening with not getting tested? I thought they broadened the criteria to get tested.

LeYouth

LeYouth wrote: »

Incompetence?

That's simplifying the issue.

It's Worse than that. It's Gross incompetence

stephenjmcd

Away With The Fairies wrote: »

What's happening with not getting tested? I thought they broadened the criteria to get tested.

Absolutely nothing. They did and there isn't the referrals coming from GPs as people arent looking for tests.
Non story

dastardly00

The OP would be well suited to work for The Sun or Daily Mail with such a sensationalist headline/title

drunkmonkey

stephenjmcd wrote: »

Absolutely nothing. They did and there isn't the referrals coming from GPs as people arent looking for tests.
Non story

There's another issue there, people aren't putting themselves forward for testing. Could you be bothered unless you had a bad dose.
Don't forget this is Ireland, a lot of people will say nothing and carry on the last thing they want is testers at the door, the shame.

JohnnyFlash

SouthWesterly wrote: »

That's simplifying the issue.

It's Worse than that. It's Gross incompetence

Nah.

ACitizenErased

Breaking news: virus not spreading means people not getting tested.

You’re clutching at straws.

chka

drunkmonkey wrote: »

Ah that's the antibodies test, are you confusing it with normal testing to see if you have it. We don't need to test the whole country.

No, I'm not confusing anything. I was talking for both tests, antibody (to see if you had it) and the molecular (RT-PCR to see if you currently have it). I have lots of friends that definitely had diagnosed as covid from GPs, the GPs requested testing that never happened because they weren't dying ...

hmmm

Antibody testing is a "nice to have", it's not essential. I'm happy for us not to spend too much money on it.

chka

Bridge93 wrote: »

We're 20th in the world for testing per Capita, 12th of countries with over 1m populations. I agree if the capacity is there testing needs to scale up. But to say virtually none is being done is b****x

According to world meters, as of today, they did 59,947 / million which is just bellow 6% (virtually no testing) of the 4,931,451 population (estimated from 2016 data and the 59k include double or tripple testing of the same person). Do you want me to calculate for you the percentage of 5000 antibody tests on 4.9m people?

PhilOssophy

They probably needed approval of all 49 layers of HSE Management before a test could be carried out.

ACitizenErased

chka wrote: »

According to world meters, as of today, they did 59,947 / million which is just bellow 6% (virtually no testing) of the 4,931,451 population (estimated from 2016 data and the 59k include double or tripple testing of the same person). Do you want me to calculate for you the percentage of 5000 antibody tests on 4.9m people?

Not sure if you realise how sampling works? 5000 people chosen specifically can be entirely representative of the population. That’s basic statistics, you learn that in secondary school.

Sconsey

chka wrote: »

According to world meters, as of today, they did 59,947 / million which is just bellow 6% (virtually no testing) of the 4,931,451 population (estimated from 2016 data and the 59k include double or tripple testing of the same person). Do you want me to calculate for you the percentage of 5000 antibody tests on 4.9m people?

I really don't get your point....that 6% figure puts Ireland in the 12th highest test rate in Europe, if you exclude Faroe, Gibralter and San Marino we are 9th.

More than Germany, Italy, Norway, UK, etc.

So if you think Ireland's test rate is bad then you should be having a go at the Eurpoean test rate, not Ireland. Relative to the rest of Europe, Ireland has a high test rate.

When you say 6% is equivalent to virtually no testing, what are you basing this on?

chka

ACitizenErased wrote: »

Not sure if you realise how sampling works? 5000 people chosen specifically can be entirely representative of the population. That’s basic statistics, you learn that in secondary school.

That exact cruel thinking explains the thinking of goverment / hse. The testing is not being done to protect people (real humans) but to satisfy your/their statistical curiocity. I hope you never have one of your close friends, parents, kids die from this virus because then you'll realise that statistical analysis is not the reason for being tested! And next time you have any illness, don't run into your GP for blood test but ask for statistical data to guess what you have

antodeco

chka wrote: »

According to world meters, as of today, they did 59,947 / million which is just bellow 6% (virtually no testing) of the 4,931,451 population (estimated from 2016 data and the 59k include double or tripple testing of the same person). Do you want me to calculate for you the percentage of 5000 antibody tests on 4.9m people?

You are assuming that everyone needs to be tested. If 50,000 people have symptoms and were tested, then we are testing too many (in theory). You are better off basing your stats on tests versus symptomatic population. Including me in the above stats is pointless, as I haven't been unwell, so I shouldn't be allowed "skew" the test rates.


A simpler example is: Take everyone who has cancer. Your survival rate is based on how.many others have cancers have survived. Not as how many people in general have not died of cancer

Irishphotodesk

chka wrote: »

Can anyone explain to me why we still can't get easily and quickly tested for covid when it was announced there is capacity for hunders of thousands of tests per week? Also, why they're planning to only test 5000 people for antibodies? https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/coronavirus-ireland-to-start-antibody-testing-early-next-month-1.4259083 Even if you're happy to pay to get tested, it's impossible to do so! The government is very happy to take our tax-money and who cares about the service it provides to us!!! It seems the government / specialists only care about not creating depressing news about deaths and new cases

Can you explain what you mean by we can't get tested easily and quickly ?
Have you displayed any symptoms? Have you been in contact with a verified case ?
Have you contacted your GP ?

If you are not showing symptoms or have not been in contact with a person with covid for a period of time.... How do you know you can't get tested quickly?

I received a phone call last week, Tues evening saying the vet was confirmed for covid ... On Wednesday I contacted my GP, Wed afternoon I attended and was tested.... I phoned doc for results on Fri and got told negative, I also received a text from HSE on Saturday saying negative, I do not have symptoms and have not had any but as a result of the contact with the vet I and my family are now forced into self isolating as per HSE instructions.

MadYaker

chka wrote: »

That exact cruel thinking explains the thinking of goverment / hse. The testing is not being done to protect people (real humans) but to satisfy your/their statistical curiocity. I hope you never have one of your close friends, parents, kids die from this virus because then you'll realise that statistical analysis is not the reason for being tested! And next time you have any illness, don't run into your GP for blood test but ask for statistical data to guess what you have

What the hell are you blabbering about?

5000 is a good sample size you can use that to get an idea of the % of the population that has had the virus. That’s one of the main uses of antibody testing.

The antigen testing is the numbers you hear getting announced on the news every day, cases and deaths etc. If there isn’t much of this testing happening it’s because people haven’t been referred for a test by their GP.

I don’t under the premise of this thread tbh.

ACitizenErased

chka wrote: »

That exact cruel thinking explains the thinking of goverment / hse. The testing is not being done to protect people (real humans) but to satisfy your/their statistical curiocity. I hope you never have one of your close friends, parents, kids die from this virus because then you'll realise that statistical analysis is not the reason for being tested! And next time you have any illness, don't run into your GP for blood test but ask for statistical data to guess what you have

Antibody testing has nothing to do with protecting people.......

hmmm

chka wrote: »

Do you want me to calculate for you the percentage of 5000 antibody tests on 4.9m people?

I suspect you're confusing antibody tests with something else. An antibody test will tell you what percentage of people have had the virus and recovered, but it's an interesting thing to know rather than something you can particularly make use of. 5,000 is a decent sample size, and we don't want to be spending money on a bigger sample. We can make a good guess at what those figures might be already by looking at our ICU and hospitalisation numbers, even without testing.

mandrake04

Ireland now have really only capability of doing 60,000 tests per week at the most, they still send a sizeable lump of tests to Germany.

Their testing woes has mainly because they didn’t have enough instrumentation, they partly resolved that by installing a high throughput analyser at the NVRL and small point of care devices in smaller hospitals. Also you test for diagnosis but also have to test recovering patients at least twice (2x negative tests 48 hrs apart) before they be discharged from hospital but this could be more so this chews up some of the testing.

It’s not possible to test entire population, you just need a fast turnaround and precise contact tracing, don’t forget the base cost of a PCR test is around €30-€40.

The antibody testing could run into similar bottle necks, although the immunoassy platform for that test is used in Ireland but it mainly used in hospitals to run urgent tests like Troponin, tumour markers, etc and already at capacity. It might be limited the amount of serology tests for covid can expected to run. The UK approved the test last week and I’m sure they had an order in for additional analysers at the same time.

Keyzer

This thread is just another example of an idiot who has been given a platform to to talk nonsense. Akin to those loopers standing on street corners with megaphones telling us "The end is nigh"....

Jinglejangle69

Is this thread actually for real?

OP give your head a wobble.

JohnnyFlash

Keyzer wrote: »

This thread is just another example of an idiot who has been given a platform to to talk nonsense. Akin to those loopers standing on street corners with megaphones telling us "The end is nigh"....

Strong whiff of Journal or Twitter commentator off it. University of Life and School of Hard Knocks sorts.

Rodney Bathgate

The OP doesn’t support SF or vote for SF, but...

sydthebeat

my wife called the doctor a couple of weeks back at 10:30 am on a thursday morning.

she was tested that day at 12:00 noon


of countries who have between 4 - 6 million population we are THIRD in the world.... behind denmark and Kuwait.
we have more per head than norway and new zealand who have been lauded for their actions.


who the fcuk thinks there is no testing in ireland????

Irishphotodesk

I think the OP has disappeared.

Keyzer

Probably down at the end of Talbot st preaching to the masses...

Away With The Fairies

drunkmonkey wrote: »

There's another issue there, people aren't putting themselves forward for testing. Could you be bothered unless you had a bad dose.
Don't forget this is Ireland, a lot of people will say nothing and carry on the last thing they want is testers at the door, the shame.

Even with a bad dose, I don't think I'd be putting myself out to get tested. If I'm battling a high fever or a persistent cough, I'm not going to a testing center. I'm just going to isolate and if I end up in the hospital, that's where I'll get my test.

Sir Guy who smiles

Irishphotodesk wrote: »

Can you explain what you mean by we can't get tested easily and quickly ?
Have you displayed any symptoms? Have you been in contact with a verified case ?
Have you contacted your GP ?

If you are not showing symptoms or have not been in contact with a person with covid for a period of time.... How do you know you can't get tested quickly?

I received a phone call last week, Tues evening saying the vet was confirmed for covid ... On Wednesday I contacted my GP, Wed afternoon I attended and was tested.... I phoned doc for results on Fri and got told negative, I also received a text from HSE on Saturday saying negative, I do not have symptoms and have not had any but as a result of the contact with the vet I and my family are now forced into self isolating as per HSE instructions.

Would you go away with your facts.
People are trying to have a rant here.

mandrake04

sydthebeat wrote: »

my wife called the doctor a couple of weeks back at 10:30 am on a thursday morning.

she was tested that day at 12:00 noon


of countries who have between 4 - 6 million population we are THIRD in the world.... behind denmark and Kuwait.
we have more per head than norway and new zealand who have been lauded for their actions.


who the fcuk thinks there is no testing in ireland????

Ummm

In fairness to NZ they did all their own tests and exactly when it mattered..at the start and consistently there after. They had a fast turnaround and were able to contact trace and targeted their tests on known contacts.

NZ didn't leave samples lying around for 3 weeks before sending them to another country to be tested, really the HSE would have been safer throwing them in the bin by that time as there was little value in trying to trace contacts at that point.... that's rather dumb.

Sure Ireland/Germany did more tests but NZ didn't really need to as they were smarter.

Not sure about Norway but I suspect they did all their own tests too.

Away With The Fairies

Irishphotodesk wrote: »

Can you explain what you mean by we can't get tested easily and quickly ?
Have you displayed any symptoms? Have you been in contact with a verified case ?
Have you contacted your GP ?

If you are not showing symptoms or have not been in contact with a person with covid for a period of time.... How do you know you can't get tested quickly?

I received a phone call last week, Tues evening saying the vet was confirmed for covid ... On Wednesday I contacted my GP, Wed afternoon I attended and was tested.... I phoned doc for results on Fri and got told negative, I also received a text from HSE on Saturday saying negative, I do not have symptoms and have not had any but as a result of the contact with the vet I and my family are now forced into self isolating as per HSE instructions.

How many times does someone have to isolate themselves/their family like this?

Also what about those that had symptoms/were tested positive a couple of weeks ago... Would they also have to isolate themselves?

Irishphotodesk

Away With The Fairies wrote: »

How many times does someone have to isolate themselves/their family like this?

Also what about those that had symptoms/were tested positive a couple of weeks ago... Would they also have to isolate themselves?

A family we know of nearby have tested negative twice....despite having all the symptoms, they are also isolating until everyone is symptom free at least 2 weeks.

The guidelines I was given were to isolate 2 weeks after test, which will be approx 3 weeks since I was in contact with vet, none of our family have had any symptoms so it’s possible the vet got infected post my visit (with dog) or was not infectious at the time, either way....will hopefully be able to leave the house soon.