[St Charles Owl]

The false positive issue is a total red herring and is being seized upon by certain people in the press who frankly we really shouldn't be giving oxygen to.

If false positives were behind the spike in numbers, it would be uniform across the UK and it clearly isn’t. Hospital admissions are at their highest level since the summer, you dont go to hospital with a severe case of false positives.

Positive test rates are going up as a percentage of total tests, no doubt about it. But this can’t be because of an increase in false positives as the rate of false positives remains constant unless the actual method of testing changes, which it hasn’t.

100% agree with this. I read an article the other day where the CDC said the same and stated that the number of hospitalizations is now the key indicator in fighting this, not the number of cases. Testing is important in identifying those who have it in the hope it might make them quarantine and at least prevent further spread, and on that basis I will take a few false positives rather than false negatives!!