Warning to schools: Covid mass tests for children are ‘shocking and unethical’

The Prime Minister will set out his roadmap for the country to lift the restrictions tomorrow, and testing is a key part of the government’s strategy to fight Covid, alongside vaccines and therapies. At least some schools could reopen on March 8. But students should be tested twice a week. It was also claimed last week that the government intended to require parents to test their children twice a week at home. Plans have not yet been confirmed, but in Scotland, where children will start returning from Monday, high school students will receive two home tests per week.

Experts urged the government not to repeat the tests, calling them “madness” and “treating children like guinea pigs”.

Other scientists have questioned the broader value of mass testing, saying false positives from testing could leave us in “self-sustaining purgatory.”

Professor Allyson Pollock, former director of the Institute of Health and Society at Newcastle University, said: “Mass testing on asymptomatic people is not evaluated and has enormous ethical implications.

“Any plan to mass test children in schools is shocking because it is totally unethical because it has not been evaluated. All tests do harm – and there will be harm that we cannot experience until we do a proper assessment.

“Do children and parents know, for example, that they will be excluded from school with a positive test and that they will be told to isolate themselves with their parents and all other members of the household? What are the implications for other children with whom they come into contact?

“There will inevitably be psychological harm – some children may be terrified of taking a test and there may be stigma after a positive test, what happens when a child refuses a second test because that the first one is too painful or uncomfortable?

“If the government wants to use testing in schools, it should set up an appropriate trial or study with ethical approval and informed consent from parents and children.”

She added: “It is unethical to treat children like guinea pigs. The standards of good research practice are not being met, which is of deep concern given that research frameworks and an international research code have been developed to protect participants and prevent harm and coercion.

“If I were the parent of a child who was going to school, I would not allow my child to be subjected to repeat testing unless there was good evidence showing that the benefits l outweigh the harms and costs. In addition, children should not be excluded if they refuse to take a test. “

Any rapid test is likely to be a lateral flow, which is faster than the “benchmark” PCR tests.

But scientists wondered if the lateral flow tests were suitable for their purpose.

Jon Deeks, professor of biostatistics and expert in the science of mass population screening at the University of Birmingham, called on the government to “urgently change course” based on lateral flow testing.

Writing for the BMJ, he and his colleagues said the large-scale deployment of the tests “can cause serious damage” because of the false results.

He said last night: “If the government switches to lateral flow testing as a metric to measure the rate of infection, it would be of concern as these tests are not fit for purpose and are being applied to different populations from week to week. random way.

“I wouldn’t take anything from the lateral flow as a marker of how we do – and we certainly shouldn’t be using the lateral flow as evidence to detect people with Covid, because it can give false positives and false negatives.”

He added: “Mass testing in any form, whether in children or adults, is not warranted as a sure or worthwhile thing to do. There is no evidence to justify using this and it will not get us out of these problems, nor do what the government wants it to do. This is because we are testing the wrong people and because of the low sensitivity of the tests. “

Professor Anthony Brookes, of the University of Leicester, said even PCR tests produced false positives.

He pointed out that if the massive escalation in testing continues, the number of false positives alone will exceed 1,000 per day.

It was a goal the government reportedly set itself as the most cases it would tolerate before easing restrictions.

Professor Brookes said: “Recently 350,000 lateral flow tests were performed in addition to about 300,000 PCR tests performed in one day.

“That would give you a false positive rate of around 2,500 per day.

“Lateral flow tests are expected to be increased tenfold.

“If you tenfold the tests like they plan to do, we would have hundreds of thousands of false positives and a similar proportional increase in spuriously associated coronavirus deaths and hospital admissions.

“I don’t see any sense in mast testing once deaths and ICU admissions drop to levels we’re comfortable with every year with other respiratory viruses.

“At the end of this month, the vaccines will mean we’re already close to that point. This makes absolutely no sense and is obviously ridiculous – they may as well tell us to wear a red clown nose to end the coronavirus. It is a purgatory which continues ”.

A DHSC spokesperson said: “About one in three people with coronavirus does not have any symptoms and can pass the virus without knowing it. Targeted asymptomatic tests can detect these cases and break the chains of transmission.

“Lateral flow tests are effective at detecting infectious cases of coronavirus, are easy to use and give results within 30 minutes, ensuring that those who test positive can isolate themselves immediately – with over 81,342 cases identified at this day.”

The Education Department did not respond to questions about the mass testing claims.

When Care Minister Helen Whately was asked to comment on the matter last week, Shd did not confirm or deny the allegations, but said: “Next week more information will be detailed on how back to school will work. ”

She added: “Work is underway to see how the tests will help schools come back. But there will be more details on that next week. “