Positive thinking

For decades, UK governments have had little interest in improving health and safety legislation. But this week, Number 10 found itself in the unexpected position of drafting new guidelines for workplaces.  The government is considering a number of health and safety measures to reduce the transmission of the coronavirus after easing lockdown restrictions including limits on the time colleagues spend in close proximity and personal protective equipment (PPE). As yet, there has been no detail on what PPE would be required and with shortages already forcing 40% of doctors to source their own , questions remain over how feasible the plans are. PPE has never made the headlines quite like this. For years, personal protection wear was mentioned only in the media as evidence of health and safety “gone mad”. A classic from the Cameron years was the story of schoolchildren being forced to wear safety goggles while playing conkers. Despite the school’s headmaster later revealing it was a...

Leading researchers warned almost two months ago that the test for COVID-19 used by the NHS and Public Health England was “significantly less sensitive” than other commercial tests. The research found a “lower rate of detection” in the UK test – especially in people with rare lung conditions – warning that this lower performance could help “propagate the epidemic”. The government is already under pressure to explain why the UK has continued to use COVID-19 tests known to be less reliable than commercial alternatives – while infection and death rates have surged. This week openDemocracy published leaked internal documents showing that due to “discordant results”, all NHS and Public Health England labs were ordered to urgently switch to commercially available testing kits by 23 April. That deadline has now been missed. A leading pathologist told openDemocracy that the NHS test’s lesser sensitivity meant it would “miss 25%” of positive results. Public Health England disputes th...