20 Britons may have died from blunder at Covid lab

HAYSIE

20 Britons may have died from blunder at Covid lab where 'play-fighting workers’ wrongly told up to 40,000 infected patients they did NOT have virus, investigators say
The error meant around 39,000 PCR tests were wrongly returned as negative
Immensa's blunder happened between September 2 and October 12, 2021
Health chiefs estimate the mistake led to about 55,000 additional Covid cases
Immensa was given a £119million contract in 2020 under Matt Hancock




https://video.dailymail.co.uk/preview/mol/2022/11/29/7561864685444248719/308x174_MP4_7561864685444248719.mp4


Errors at Immensa's Wolverhampton site (top) meant around 39,000 positive PCR swabs were wrongly logged as negative. As a result, thousands continued with their daily lives and didn't self-isolate - even though they were potentially infectious. UK Health Security Agency chiefs have now estimated the mistakes, which occurred in the autumn of 2021, led to about 55,000 extra cases. Covid testers at the site were filmed fighting (bottom), playing football, sleeping and throwing snowballs in January, while the country was frozen under lockdown.


https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11481771/Blunder-COVID-lab-linked-deaths-20-people-investigators-say.html

Allan23

Incredible there wasn't more of this.

Our testing capacity was absolutely world beating - thus to frame one example where those who had covid not being informed of it as "having lead to the death of 20 Britons" is pretty poor.

HAYSIE

Allan23 said:

Incredible there wasn't more of this.

Our testing capacity was absolutely world beating - thus to frame one example where those who had covid not being informed of it as "having lead to the death of 20 Britons" is pretty poor.

World beating?
Or didnt have a clue what they were doing?

The error meant around 39,000 PCR tests were wrongly returned as negative
Health chiefs estimate the mistake led to about 55,000 additional Covid cases
The company, owned by Harvard University-educated Andrea Riposati, was only set up in May 2020, months before it was awarded the first deal by the then health secretary Matt Hancock.
Immensa was given a £119million contract in 2020 under Matt Hancock
It was not put out to tender under rules allowing urgent responses to the pandemic, meaning other companies did not have a chance to bid.
Another £50million was awarded to Immensa by the Government for additional PCR testing last summer.
Covid testers at the site were filmed fighting, playing football, sleeping and throwing snowballs in January, while the country was frozen under lockdown.

NHS Test and Trace, the body in charge of Britain's Covid swabbing programme, suspended testing operations provided by Immensa at its lab in Wolverhampton in October 2021 following reports of inaccurate results.
An investigation into the blunder concluded the error at the lab occurred because staff set the threshold levels for reporting positive and negative results incorrectly.

HAYSIE

Allan23 said:

Incredible there wasn't more of this.

Our testing capacity was absolutely world beating - thus to frame one example where those who had covid not being informed of it as "having lead to the death of 20 Britons" is pretty poor.

Second lab owned by scandal-hit testing company facing allegations of misconduct
Exclusive: NHS tests have reportedly been processed at the site, where staff were forced to operate faulty machines and given improper protective equipment. Experts have called for the lab to be investigated



A second private Covid testing laboratory run by a scandal-hit company which has received millions from the government is facing calls to be investigated over numerous allegations of wrongdoing.

It is feared that incorrect Covid test results have been sent out to the public from the lab, run by the diagnostics firm Immensa,


https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/covid-testing-immensa-lab-nhs-latest-b1960760.html

VespaPX

https://goodlawproject.org/update/immensa-legal-case-launched/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-58980695

HAYSIE

Allan23 said:

Incredible there wasn't more of this.

Our testing capacity was absolutely world beating - thus to frame one example where those who had covid not being informed of it as "having lead to the death of 20 Britons" is pretty poor.

UK ministers face questions over firm linked to suspected Covid test errors
This article is more than 1 year old
Immensa’s sister company already being investigated and a related US firm sent out used DNA test kits



Ministers are facing questions about the Covid testing company linked to suspected wrong PCR results, as it emerged its sister company in the UK is being investigated over travel testing failures and a related US firm sent out used DNA test kits filled with other customers’ saliva.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/15/uk-ministers-face-questions-firm-linked-suspected-covid-test-errors

HAYSIE

VespaPX said:

https://goodlawproject.org/update/immensa-legal-case-launched/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-58980695

Definitely world beating.


Wolverhampton Covid testing lab not accredited despite assurances



A Covid-19 testing lab accused of producing thousands of incorrect results has not been accredited by the UK's regulatory body, despite the government saying it was.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-58980695

Allan23

HAYSIE said:

Allan23 said:

Incredible there wasn't more of this.

Our testing capacity was absolutely world beating - thus to frame one example where those who had covid not being informed of it as "having lead to the death of 20 Britons" is pretty poor.

World beating?
Or didnt have a clue what they were doing?

The error meant around 39,000 PCR tests were wrongly returned as negative
Health chiefs estimate the mistake led to about 55,000 additional Covid cases
The company, owned by Harvard University-educated Andrea Riposati, was only set up in May 2020, months before it was awarded the first deal by the then health secretary Matt Hancock.
Immensa was given a £119million contract in 2020 under Matt Hancock
It was not put out to tender under rules allowing urgent responses to the pandemic, meaning other companies did not have a chance to bid.
Another £50million was awarded to Immensa by the Government for additional PCR testing last summer.
Covid testers at the site were filmed fighting, playing football, sleeping and throwing snowballs in January, while the country was frozen under lockdown.

NHS Test and Trace, the body in charge of Britain's Covid swabbing programme, suspended testing operations provided by Immensa at its lab in Wolverhampton in October 2021 following reports of inaccurate results.
An investigation into the blunder concluded the error at the lab occurred because staff set the threshold levels for reporting positive and negative results incorrectly.

It's an uncomfortable truth that the UK was very very good at testing - far better than almost every European nation, in fact (small countries like Gibraltar, Malta etc the exception)

HAYSIE

Allan23 said:

HAYSIE said:

Allan23 said:

Incredible there wasn't more of this.

Our testing capacity was absolutely world beating - thus to frame one example where those who had covid not being informed of it as "having lead to the death of 20 Britons" is pretty poor.

World beating?
Or didnt have a clue what they were doing?

The error meant around 39,000 PCR tests were wrongly returned as negative
Health chiefs estimate the mistake led to about 55,000 additional Covid cases
The company, owned by Harvard University-educated Andrea Riposati, was only set up in May 2020, months before it was awarded the first deal by the then health secretary Matt Hancock.
Immensa was given a £119million contract in 2020 under Matt Hancock
It was not put out to tender under rules allowing urgent responses to the pandemic, meaning other companies did not have a chance to bid.
Another £50million was awarded to Immensa by the Government for additional PCR testing last summer.
Covid testers at the site were filmed fighting, playing football, sleeping and throwing snowballs in January, while the country was frozen under lockdown.

NHS Test and Trace, the body in charge of Britain's Covid swabbing programme, suspended testing operations provided by Immensa at its lab in Wolverhampton in October 2021 following reports of inaccurate results.
An investigation into the blunder concluded the error at the lab occurred because staff set the threshold levels for reporting positive and negative results incorrectly.

It's an uncomfortable truth that the UK was very very good at testing - far better than almost every European nation, in fact (small countries like Gibraltar, Malta etc the exception)

I never find the truth uncomfortable.
Your graph merely shows the number of tests carried out, nothing else.
My own memory of the whole test and trace operation was that it was not world class.
It was often a shambles.
There were many question marks over the accuracy of the results, they ran out of tests regularly, testing centres were often empty, Matt Hancock became adept at massaging the stats, and regularly lied about the number of tests carried out, in order to claim that targets had been met.

As far as this story goes, I have gone through all the reasons why it is clearly a scandal.
There is no point in repeating it all, as if you havent grasped it by now, me repeating it all is unlikely to help.

I really struggle to see why you wouldnt think that giving around 40,000 people that were positive for covid, negative test results, as an unmitigated disaster.
This would have provided all those people with the confidence to go to work, and pass it on to their colleagues, pass it on to their friends down the pub, as well as visit elderly relatives, and maybe kill them off.
They were tricked into believing they were safe, when they were very high risk.

The Government lied about this companys accreditation, and gave them contracts valued at almost£170 million.
The companys staff behaved like ar5eholes.
Testing was suspended after the company was found to be incompetent.
What a surprise.

It is difficult to calculate how many people were infected as a result of this error.
They estimate that the original 40,000 would have infected 2 people each.
Then you have the infections caused by the secondary infections, and so on.
Twenty deaths is probably looking on the bright side.

Allan23

HAYSIE said:

Allan23 said:

HAYSIE said:

Allan23 said:

Incredible there wasn't more of this.

Our testing capacity was absolutely world beating - thus to frame one example where those who had covid not being informed of it as "having lead to the death of 20 Britons" is pretty poor.

World beating?
Or didnt have a clue what they were doing?

The error meant around 39,000 PCR tests were wrongly returned as negative
Health chiefs estimate the mistake led to about 55,000 additional Covid cases
The company, owned by Harvard University-educated Andrea Riposati, was only set up in May 2020, months before it was awarded the first deal by the then health secretary Matt Hancock.
Immensa was given a £119million contract in 2020 under Matt Hancock
It was not put out to tender under rules allowing urgent responses to the pandemic, meaning other companies did not have a chance to bid.
Another £50million was awarded to Immensa by the Government for additional PCR testing last summer.
Covid testers at the site were filmed fighting, playing football, sleeping and throwing snowballs in January, while the country was frozen under lockdown.

NHS Test and Trace, the body in charge of Britain's Covid swabbing programme, suspended testing operations provided by Immensa at its lab in Wolverhampton in October 2021 following reports of inaccurate results.
An investigation into the blunder concluded the error at the lab occurred because staff set the threshold levels for reporting positive and negative results incorrectly.

It's an uncomfortable truth that the UK was very very good at testing - far better than almost every European nation, in fact (small countries like Gibraltar, Malta etc the exception)

I never find the truth uncomfortable.
Your graph merely shows the number of tests carried out, nothing else.
My own memory of the whole test and trace operation was that it was not world class.
It was often a shambles.
There were many question marks over the accuracy of the results, they ran out of tests regularly, testing centres were often empty, Matt Hancock became adept at massaging the stats, and regularly lied about the number of tests carried out, in order to claim that targets had been met.

As far as this story goes, I have gone through all the reasons why it is clearly a scandal.
There is no point in repeating it all, as if you havent grasped it by now, me repeating it all is unlikely to help.

I really struggle to see why you wouldnt think that giving around 40,000 people that were positive for covid, negative test results, as an unmitigated disaster.
This would have provided all those people with the confidence to go to work, and pass it on to their colleagues, pass it on to their friends down the pub, as well as visit elderly relatives, and maybe kill them off.
They were tricked into believing they were safe, when they were very high risk.

The Government lied about this companys accreditation, and gave them contracts valued at almost£170 million.
The companys staff behaved like ar5eholes.
Testing was suspended after the company was found to be incompetent.
What a surprise.

It is difficult to calculate how many people were infected as a result of this error.
They estimate that the original 40,000 would have infected 2 people each.
Then you have the infections caused by the secondary infections, and so on.
Twenty deaths is probably looking on the bright side.

This is either a misread of the graph or a bare faced lie.

It shows the number of tests carried out per 1000 people - the number of tests carried out would be pointless due to population differences between countries.

Number of tests per 1000 people shows testing rates and therefore testing capacity. It can therefore be used for directly comparing these 2 factors in different countries.

Moreover, it shows the UK was testing more than many other countries (by a decent magnitude) - hence, the chances of a blunder increase.

VespaPX

How many elderly people, in hospital, were tested before they were discharged into care homes?
How many deaths were related to this?

HAYSIE

Allan23 said:

HAYSIE said:

Allan23 said:

HAYSIE said:

Allan23 said:

Incredible there wasn't more of this.

Our testing capacity was absolutely world beating - thus to frame one example where those who had covid not being informed of it as "having lead to the death of 20 Britons" is pretty poor.

World beating?
Or didnt have a clue what they were doing?

The error meant around 39,000 PCR tests were wrongly returned as negative
Health chiefs estimate the mistake led to about 55,000 additional Covid cases
The company, owned by Harvard University-educated Andrea Riposati, was only set up in May 2020, months before it was awarded the first deal by the then health secretary Matt Hancock.
Immensa was given a £119million contract in 2020 under Matt Hancock
It was not put out to tender under rules allowing urgent responses to the pandemic, meaning other companies did not have a chance to bid.
Another £50million was awarded to Immensa by the Government for additional PCR testing last summer.
Covid testers at the site were filmed fighting, playing football, sleeping and throwing snowballs in January, while the country was frozen under lockdown.

NHS Test and Trace, the body in charge of Britain's Covid swabbing programme, suspended testing operations provided by Immensa at its lab in Wolverhampton in October 2021 following reports of inaccurate results.
An investigation into the blunder concluded the error at the lab occurred because staff set the threshold levels for reporting positive and negative results incorrectly.

It's an uncomfortable truth that the UK was very very good at testing - far better than almost every European nation, in fact (small countries like Gibraltar, Malta etc the exception)

I never find the truth uncomfortable.
Your graph merely shows the number of tests carried out, nothing else.
My own memory of the whole test and trace operation was that it was not world class.
It was often a shambles.
There were many question marks over the accuracy of the results, they ran out of tests regularly, testing centres were often empty, Matt Hancock became adept at massaging the stats, and regularly lied about the number of tests carried out, in order to claim that targets had been met.

As far as this story goes, I have gone through all the reasons why it is clearly a scandal.
There is no point in repeating it all, as if you havent grasped it by now, me repeating it all is unlikely to help.

I really struggle to see why you wouldnt think that giving around 40,000 people that were positive for covid, negative test results, as an unmitigated disaster.
This would have provided all those people with the confidence to go to work, and pass it on to their colleagues, pass it on to their friends down the pub, as well as visit elderly relatives, and maybe kill them off.
They were tricked into believing they were safe, when they were very high risk.

The Government lied about this companys accreditation, and gave them contracts valued at almost£170 million.
The companys staff behaved like ar5eholes.
Testing was suspended after the company was found to be incompetent.
What a surprise.

It is difficult to calculate how many people were infected as a result of this error.
They estimate that the original 40,000 would have infected 2 people each.
Then you have the infections caused by the secondary infections, and so on.
Twenty deaths is probably looking on the bright side.

This is either a misread of the graph or a bare faced lie.

It shows the number of tests carried out per 1000 people - the number of tests carried out would be pointless due to population differences between countries.

Number of tests per 1000 people shows testing rates and therefore testing capacity. It can therefore be used for directly comparing these 2 factors in different countries.

Moreover, it shows the UK was testing more than many other countries (by a decent magnitude) - hence, the chances of a blunder increase.

But the accuracy of the results, or the availability of the actual tests doesnt figure anywhere.
What is the point of measuring the number of tests, if the tests are inaccurate.
Whether this number is per thousand of population or not.

HAYSIE

VespaPX said:

How many elderly people, in hospital, were tested before they were discharged into care homes?
How many deaths were related to this?

UK: Older people in care homes abandoned to die amid Government failures during coronavirus pandemic - new report



Amnesty’s 50-page report - As If Expendable: The UK Government’s Failure to Protect Older People in Care Homes during the COVID-19 Pandemic - shows that care home residents in England were effectively abandoned in the early stages of the pandemic.

Between 2 March and 12 June this year 28,186 “excess deaths” were recorded in care homes in England, with over 18,500 care home residents confirmed to have died with COVID-19 during this period.

https://www.amnesty.org.uk/press-releases/uk-older-people-care-homes-abandoned-die-amid-government-failures-during-coronavirus

HAYSIE

Allan23 said:

HAYSIE said:

Allan23 said:

HAYSIE said:

Allan23 said:

Incredible there wasn't more of this.

Our testing capacity was absolutely world beating - thus to frame one example where those who had covid not being informed of it as "having lead to the death of 20 Britons" is pretty poor.

World beating?
Or didnt have a clue what they were doing?

The error meant around 39,000 PCR tests were wrongly returned as negative
Health chiefs estimate the mistake led to about 55,000 additional Covid cases
The company, owned by Harvard University-educated Andrea Riposati, was only set up in May 2020, months before it was awarded the first deal by the then health secretary Matt Hancock.
Immensa was given a £119million contract in 2020 under Matt Hancock
It was not put out to tender under rules allowing urgent responses to the pandemic, meaning other companies did not have a chance to bid.
Another £50million was awarded to Immensa by the Government for additional PCR testing last summer.
Covid testers at the site were filmed fighting, playing football, sleeping and throwing snowballs in January, while the country was frozen under lockdown.

NHS Test and Trace, the body in charge of Britain's Covid swabbing programme, suspended testing operations provided by Immensa at its lab in Wolverhampton in October 2021 following reports of inaccurate results.
An investigation into the blunder concluded the error at the lab occurred because staff set the threshold levels for reporting positive and negative results incorrectly.

It's an uncomfortable truth that the UK was very very good at testing - far better than almost every European nation, in fact (small countries like Gibraltar, Malta etc the exception)

I never find the truth uncomfortable.
Your graph merely shows the number of tests carried out, nothing else.
My own memory of the whole test and trace operation was that it was not world class.
It was often a shambles.
There were many question marks over the accuracy of the results, they ran out of tests regularly, testing centres were often empty, Matt Hancock became adept at massaging the stats, and regularly lied about the number of tests carried out, in order to claim that targets had been met.

As far as this story goes, I have gone through all the reasons why it is clearly a scandal.
There is no point in repeating it all, as if you havent grasped it by now, me repeating it all is unlikely to help.

I really struggle to see why you wouldnt think that giving around 40,000 people that were positive for covid, negative test results, as an unmitigated disaster.
This would have provided all those people with the confidence to go to work, and pass it on to their colleagues, pass it on to their friends down the pub, as well as visit elderly relatives, and maybe kill them off.
They were tricked into believing they were safe, when they were very high risk.

The Government lied about this companys accreditation, and gave them contracts valued at almost£170 million.
The companys staff behaved like ar5eholes.
Testing was suspended after the company was found to be incompetent.
What a surprise.

It is difficult to calculate how many people were infected as a result of this error.
They estimate that the original 40,000 would have infected 2 people each.
Then you have the infections caused by the secondary infections, and so on.
Twenty deaths is probably looking on the bright side.

This is either a misread of the graph or a bare faced lie.

It shows the number of tests carried out per 1000 people - the number of tests carried out would be pointless due to population differences between countries.

Number of tests per 1000 people shows testing rates and therefore testing capacity. It can therefore be used for directly comparing these 2 factors in different countries.

Moreover, it shows the UK was testing more than many other countries (by a decent magnitude) - hence, the chances of a blunder increase.

It wasnt a blunder they were incompetent.


NHS Test and Trace, the body in charge of Britain's Covid swabbing programme, suspended testing operations provided by Immensa at its lab in Wolverhampton in October 2021 following reports of inaccurate results.
An investigation into the blunder concluded the error at the lab occurred because staff set the threshold levels for reporting positive and negative results incorrectly.

HAYSIE

Allan23 said:

Incredible there wasn't more of this.

Our testing capacity was absolutely world beating - thus to frame one example where those who had covid not being informed of it as "having lead to the death of 20 Britons" is pretty poor.

Of course England is running out of Covid tests – the strategy is a ...
https://www.theguardian.com/.../30/running-out-covid-tests-strategy-flawed
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Author: Azeem Majeed

Coronavirus: Why has the UK run out of testing …
https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-why-has-the-uk-run-out-o…
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Covid cases soar but test kits run out across UK - The Times
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/covid-cases-soar-but-test-kits-run...
30/12/2021 · Thursday December 30 2021, 12.01am GMT, The Times Nicola Sturgeon said that testing is “a UK system, so we are required that it is done in partnership with the UK …

PCRs run out in England as Brits scramble to get Covid tests …
https://www.thesun.co.uk/.../pcrs-run-out-england-scramble-covid-tests
29/12/2021 · Yesterday Covid cases hit a record high with 129,471 more people testing positive. But coronavirus-related deaths fell, with 18 fatalities recorded in the UK. The total number of …


How the UK’s coronavirus testing regime totally …
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/uk-coronavirus-testing
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Covid: UK's early response worst public health failure ever, MPs say
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-58876089
12/10/2021 · The UK was one of the first countries in the world to develop a test for Covid in January 2020, but failed to translate that into an effective test-and-trace system during the first …

Lateral flow Covid tests run out on day lockdown is fully lifted
https://www.independent.co.uk/.../lateral-flow-test-run-out-b1886589.html
19/07/2021 · The UK has seemingly run out of Covid-19 lateral flow tests just hours after most mandatory coronavirus restrictions were eased in England. People attempting to order …

Thousands left frustrated as jabs and Covid tests run out
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/thousands-left-frustrated-as-jabs...
15/12/2021 · Sponsored The UK Health Security Agency said that 1.6 million Covid tests were taken and 230,000 boxes of home-testing kits sent out across England on Monday. The double …

Areas in England run out of Covid PCR tests with no slots ... - mirror
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/breaking-england-runs-out-covid-25693724
14/12/2021 · There are no PCR Covid test slots left in areas of England today, it has emerged. Hertfordshire, Suffolk, the Isle of Wight, Bristol, and Mendip currently have no PCR tests - the …

Fear Covid tests could run out after serious problem at UK factory
https://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/.../fear-covid-tests-could-run-4582530
07/10/2020 · PA understands the issue has not had an impact on Covid-19 tests at this point. However, concerns have been raised about the future supply of tests for the virus and the …

HAYSIE

Allan23 said:

Incredible there wasn't more of this.

Our testing capacity was absolutely world beating - thus to frame one example where those who had covid not being informed of it as "having lead to the death of 20 Britons" is pretty poor.

Covid: UK's early response worst public health failure ever, MPs say






'Slow testing'

The UK was one of the first countries in the world to develop a test for Covid in January 2020, but failed to translate that into an effective test-and-trace system during the first year of the pandemic, the report said.

Testing in the community stopped in March 2020 and for weeks during the first peak only those admitted to hospital were tested.

It was not until May that the NHS Test and Trace system was launched in England, but the report described its start as "slow, uncertain and often chaotic".

It said the system was too centralised, only later making use of the expertise in local public health teams run by councils.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-58876089

HAYSIE

Allan23 said:

Incredible there wasn't more of this.

Our testing capacity was absolutely world beating - thus to frame one example where those who had covid not being informed of it as "having lead to the death of 20 Britons" is pretty poor.

My 'hideous blunder'... the multi-million pound app that couldn't take Covid test results: Matt Hancock on his embarrassing misfire that made Dominic Cummings 'go nuts'



Matt Hancock writes in his diaries in Oct 2020: 'Boris has started going on about "freedom passes"... I can see the appeal, but I can also see the likely furore over anything resembling "papers please".'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11498495/Matt-Hancock-multi-million-pound-app-Covid-test-results.html