British Scientist Says Flawed PCR Tests Mistook Common Colds, Flu For COVID-19

A British scientist has made a sensational claim that flawed PCR tests mistook common colds and flu for COVID-19.

According to a British scientist, faulty PCR tests that confused COVID-19 for the common cold and the flu should have been abandoned, reports WION.

According to professor Francois Balloux, director of the Genetics Institute at University College London, “many people may not have been infectious, despite getting a positive test.”

According to UK government guidance, lateral flow devices (LFDs) are less reliable than PCR tests, and individuals can stop self-isolating if a positive LFD outcome is followed by a negative PCR test result.

The decision, according to Professor Alan McNally, a microbiologist at the University of Birmingham who assisted in the establishment of the Lighthouse Lab in Milton Keynes, meant that PCR testing procedures were “largely standardised.”

“There appears to have been little or no oversight of these new labs, and with different PCR methods and equipment being used,” says Prof McNally.

A COVID-19 testing facility in central England had been suspended by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) due to worries that infected patients had been obtaining false negative PCR test results.

After learning that some individuals had positive results on quick lateral flow devices (LFDs) but had negative PCR test results, NHS Test and Trace opened an inquiry into a lab in Wolverhampton.

In southwest England, specifically, the UKHSA reported that an approximate 43,000 individuals may have received fake negative PCR test results, potentially underestimating the number of coronavirus cases between September 8 and October 12.

Immensa Health Clinic, a private firm that operates the lab, was established in May 2020 and has received contracts to process PCR test results worth 170 million pounds ($234 million).

The company, according to its chief executive Andrea Riposati, is “fully collaborating” with the UKHSA’s inquiry and does “not wish this matter or anything else to tarnish the amazing work done by the UK in this pandemic.”

Riposati also manages Dante Labs, which the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is looking into over claims it has not always delivered PCR test results on time or at all.

Many claim that NHS Test and Trace falls significantly short of the “world-beating” system that Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised.

“In Milton Keynes, every test we performed was scrutinised and checked by experts, the quality was poured over every day and we were held to account,” says Prof McNally.

“Clearly in some of the newer labs, that didn’t happen. Cynically, one might say it almost turned into a money-making exercise for the private sector as we had lateral flows by then and everyone knew how do them.”

“Why did we need expensive PCRs? The test results basically became meaningless.”

“I’ve been contacted a couple of times about other examples,” says Prof McNally. “There will always be errors in labs, usually they’re caught quickly. Immensa was only the worst one.”