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新冠病毒检测丑闻发酵,英政府承诺将检测能力提高10倍

新冠病毒检测丑闻发酵,英政府承诺将检测能力提高10倍

Katherine Dunn 2020-04-10
英国政府表示,将在本月底前将检测能力提高到每天10万人,是目前检测能力的10倍。

上周,英国政府承诺建立“规模化”紧急诊断行业,以便推动新冠病毒的大范围检测。在此之前,英国政府已连续几天受到批评,原因是就连一线医护人员也很难确定自己是否感染了新冠肺炎。

英国政府表示,将在本月底前将检测能力提高到每天10万人,是目前检测能力的10倍。英国当前检测能力不如西班牙、意大利和美国,和德国相比更是远远落后。德国每天已经能检测5万人,在欧洲位居榜首。

上周四,英国卫生大臣马特·汉考克说,德国能进行大范围检测得益于其覆盖面宽广的诊断行业,特别是总部设在瑞士巴塞尔的医疗保健巨头罗氏制药在德国拥有大量业务。

这是汉考克解除自我隔离后首次公开露面。此前他和英国首相鲍里斯·约翰逊一同确诊感染新冠肺炎。4月6日,因病情恶化,约翰逊被转入重症监护室。9日,英国政府宣布,由于病情有所缓解,约翰逊已离开重症监护室,但将继续留在医院进行治疗。

汉考克表示:“和有些国家不同,我们遭遇这场危机时还没有庞大的诊断行业。我们有世界上最好的科学实验室,但我们缺乏规模。”

他还说,出现这场危机时,德国卫生部长可以让100个检测实验室处于“准备妥当并待命状态”。据英国广播公司(BBC)报道,英国仅动用了48个实验室用于新冠病毒检测。

汉考克说,“我们必须从较低的起点开始建设”,而且大范围检测必须的检测拭子和试剂都处于短缺状态。他指出,在此前从未提供过此类服务的大型医疗保健公司的帮助下,英国现在可以建立起诊断行业。

近几周经常批评英国政府做法的医学杂志《柳叶刀》编辑理查德·霍顿在推特上称:“这是对战略失败的彻底坦白。”

近期,英国国家医疗服务体系(NHS)被曝工作人员中只有很少一部分接受了检测,这让英国政府的检测丑闻不断放大。据汉考克介绍,在大约50万一线医疗人员中,到目前为止只有5000人因接触新冠病毒而接受了检测。而这已经高于上周三的数字,当时英国政府称有2000名NHS工作人员接受了检测。

然而,英国皇家医师学会和英国皇家护理学院上周早些时候公布的消息显示,英国有四分之一的医生和五分之一的护士因出现新冠肺炎症状而处于自我隔离状态,无法返回工作岗位。这造成了关键医疗服务资源在最需要的时刻出现流失。多家医院披露的消息表明,NHS工作人员还严重缺乏个人防护用品。

上周四,汉考克表示防护物资储备充足,但物流问题使这些物资无法到达所需之处。

上周,新闻网站BuzzFeed刊登的一篇报道称,由于英国公共卫生部缺乏沟通,英国动植物卫生署早前曾提出动用其资源和检测能力,而这些资源和检测能力通常用于动物疾病检测。英国公共卫生部发言人表示,英国政府已重新部署了所有的官方科学家,以便提高新冠病毒的实验室检测能力。

与此同时,外界开始指责英国政府低估了病毒扩散的范围及其对NHS的冲击,称其无视世界卫生组织的“检测、检测再检测”建议,而且还把时间用于很快就被否定的群体免疫策略。英国政府官员后来称有关此项策略的消息是政府对外沟通有误。

汉考克上周四说,检测已经而且将继续作为针对患者的首要工作,因为对患者来说,诊断可能有助于在治疗时做出“关乎生死”的决定,而NHS一线工作人员也将按照这样的决定开展工作。

他指出,每日检测10万人的目标既包括判断是否感染的检测,也包括判断患者是否痊愈的检测,而后一项检测的目的是让康复者安全返还工作岗位。

上周四记者反复提到,今年初英国政府曾表示英国和NHS已经为新冠疫情做了充分准备,对此汉考克则含糊其辞。当时英国政府曾预测,在6644万英国人中,最终将有80%的人感染新冠肺炎,而禁止大型集体活动和学校停课对感染率的影响微乎其微。

据世界卫生组织4月9日数据,英国新冠肺炎确诊病例超60000人,死亡7000多人,十几名医疗工作者感染新冠肺炎去世,其中包括曾在NHS工作了40年的老医生阿尔法·萨杜。英国政府发出召集令后,已经退休的萨杜返回医院,参加了新冠肺炎患者治疗工作。

(财富中文网)

译者:Feb

上周,英国政府承诺建立“规模化”紧急诊断行业,以便推动新冠病毒的大范围检测。在此之前,英国政府已连续几天受到批评,原因是就连一线医护人员也很难确定自己是否感染了新冠肺炎。

英国政府表示,将在本月底前将检测能力提高到每天10万人,是目前检测能力的10倍。英国当前检测能力不如西班牙、意大利和美国,和德国相比更是远远落后。德国每天已经能检测5万人,在欧洲位居榜首。

上周四,英国卫生大臣马特·汉考克说,德国能进行大范围检测得益于其覆盖面宽广的诊断行业,特别是总部设在瑞士巴塞尔的医疗保健巨头罗氏制药在德国拥有大量业务。

这是汉考克解除自我隔离后首次公开露面。此前他和英国首相鲍里斯·约翰逊一同确诊感染新冠肺炎。4月6日,因病情恶化,约翰逊被转入重症监护室。9日,英国政府宣布,由于病情有所缓解,约翰逊已离开重症监护室,但将继续留在医院进行治疗。

汉考克表示:“和有些国家不同,我们遭遇这场危机时还没有庞大的诊断行业。我们有世界上最好的科学实验室,但我们缺乏规模。”

他还说,出现这场危机时,德国卫生部长可以让100个检测实验室处于“准备妥当并待命状态”。据英国广播公司(BBC)报道,英国仅动用了48个实验室用于新冠病毒检测。

汉考克说,“我们必须从较低的起点开始建设”,而且大范围检测必须的检测拭子和试剂都处于短缺状态。他指出,在此前从未提供过此类服务的大型医疗保健公司的帮助下,英国现在可以建立起诊断行业。

近几周经常批评英国政府做法的医学杂志《柳叶刀》编辑理查德·霍顿在推特上称:“这是对战略失败的彻底坦白。”

近期,英国国家医疗服务体系(NHS)被曝工作人员中只有很少一部分接受了检测,这让英国政府的检测丑闻不断放大。据汉考克介绍,在大约50万一线医疗人员中,到目前为止只有5000人因接触新冠病毒而接受了检测。而这已经高于上周三的数字,当时英国政府称有2000名NHS工作人员接受了检测。

然而,英国皇家医师学会和英国皇家护理学院上周早些时候公布的消息显示,英国有四分之一的医生和五分之一的护士因出现新冠肺炎症状而处于自我隔离状态,无法返回工作岗位。这造成了关键医疗服务资源在最需要的时刻出现流失。多家医院披露的消息表明,NHS工作人员还严重缺乏个人防护用品。

上周四,汉考克表示防护物资储备充足,但物流问题使这些物资无法到达所需之处。

上周,新闻网站BuzzFeed刊登的一篇报道称,由于英国公共卫生部缺乏沟通,英国动植物卫生署早前曾提出动用其资源和检测能力,而这些资源和检测能力通常用于动物疾病检测。英国公共卫生部发言人表示,英国政府已重新部署了所有的官方科学家,以便提高新冠病毒的实验室检测能力。

与此同时,外界开始指责英国政府低估了病毒扩散的范围及其对NHS的冲击,称其无视世界卫生组织的“检测、检测再检测”建议,而且还把时间用于很快就被否定的群体免疫策略。英国政府官员后来称有关此项策略的消息是政府对外沟通有误。

汉考克上周四说,检测已经而且将继续作为针对患者的首要工作,因为对患者来说,诊断可能有助于在治疗时做出“关乎生死”的决定,而NHS一线工作人员也将按照这样的决定开展工作。

他指出,每日检测10万人的目标既包括判断是否感染的检测,也包括判断患者是否痊愈的检测,而后一项检测的目的是让康复者安全返还工作岗位。

上周四记者反复提到,今年初英国政府曾表示英国和NHS已经为新冠疫情做了充分准备,对此汉考克则含糊其辞。当时英国政府曾预测,在6644万英国人中,最终将有80%的人感染新冠肺炎,而禁止大型集体活动和学校停课对感染率的影响微乎其微。

据世界卫生组织4月9日数据,英国新冠肺炎确诊病例超60000人,死亡7000多人,十几名医疗工作者感染新冠肺炎去世,其中包括曾在NHS工作了40年的老医生阿尔法·萨杜。英国政府发出召集令后,已经退休的萨杜返回医院,参加了新冠肺炎患者治疗工作。

(财富中文网)

译者:Feb

The U.K. government committed Thursday to building an emergency diagnostics industry “at scale” in order to ramp up widespread testing for COVID-19, after facing days of criticism that even frontline health care workers were struggling to find out whether they had contracted the disease.

The government committed to ramping up testing to 100,000 tests per day by the end of the month—a 10-fold increase from the current 10,000 tests per day. That was a testing rate lower than those in Spain, Italy, and the U.S.—and came far short of the rate in Germany, which was already testing at least 50,000 people per day, the highest rate in Europe.

On Thursday, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said that the widespread testing in Germany was due to its extensive diagnostics industry, particularly the substantial presence of health care giant Roche, based in Basel, Switzerland.

It was Hancock’s first public appearance after emerging from self-isolation, the result of his testing positive for the coronavirus himself, alongside British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is still in isolation and reportedly experiencing mild symptoms.

“Unlike some countries, we didn’t go into this crisis with a huge diagnostics industry. We have the best scientific labs in the world, but we did not have the scale,” said Hancock.

The German health secretary could call on 100 test labs, he added, “ready and waiting” when the crisis struck. According to the BBC, the U.K. is using only 48 labs for testing.

“We have had to build from a lower base,” Hancock said, adding there had been a shortage of both swabs and reagents critical for doing tests on a wide scale. The U.K. would now build a diagnostics industry, he said, with help from major health care companies that previously hadn’t offered the service.

“This is a huge admission of strategic failure,” tweeted Richard Horton, editor of the medical journal The Lancet and a frequent critic of the U.K. government’s approach in recent weeks.

The U.K. government has faced a growing scandal in recent days over the limited testing for workers in the National Health Service, known as the NHS, where only 5,000 out of about half a million frontline health care workers had received a test for exposure to the virus so far, according to Hancock. That was a higher figure than the one given on Wednesday, when the government said just 2,000 NHS workers had been tested.

Those testing rates were despite reports earlier this week that one in four doctors and one in five nurses in the country is in self-isolation over symptoms and unable to return to work, according to the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal College of Nursing, taking critical resources out of the health service just when they are needed most. Workers in the NHS are also facing a critical lack of personal protective equipment, according to multiple reports from hospitals.

On Thursday, Hancock said there were sufficient stores of protective equipment, but issues with distribution had prevented them from getting everywhere they were needed.

A report this week from BuzzFeed also alleged that a lack of communication from Public Health England had botched an early offer from the government’s animal health agency to use its resources and testing capabilities, which are usually used to test animals for diseases. A spokesperson from Public Health England said scientists across the government had been redeployed to scale up lab-testing capacity for COVID-19.

That came alongside accusations that the government had underestimated the scale of the virus and its impact on the NHS, brushing off WHO guidance to “test, test, test” and spending time instead on a short-lived strategy of pursuing herd immunity, which government officials later said was a miscommunication.

On Thursday, Hancock said that testing had and would continue to be prioritized for patients, for whom a diagnosis could help inform “life or death” decisions about treatment, followed by frontline NHS workers.

The 100,000 target would include both tests to determine whether someone is currently positive, he said, and antibody tests, to determine whether someone has had the disease and recovered, in order to enable them to return to work safely.

On Thursday, Hancock also batted away repeated questions from journalists about government claims earlier this year that the country and the NHS were well prepared for the scale of the virus. At that time, the government had forecasted that up to 80% of the population of 66.44 million people could eventually be infected, but also claimed that banning large events and closing schools would have little impact on infection rates.

As of Thursday, 33,718 people in the U.K. had been diagnosed with coronavirus; 2,921 people had died. That includes at least five health care workers, including a physician and 40-year veteran of the NHS, Dr. Alfa Saadu, who had come out of retirement to treat the disease as part of a government scheme to call back health care workers.

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