-
My hunch is that they are just not sensitive/accurate enough.
True in terms of an individual test compared with PCR. But you need to look at the wider countrywide picture.
The UK labs just would not be able to cope with everyone doing a PCR test instead of using a LFD.
If you have symptoms then you go straight to PCR:-
https://www.gov.uk/order-coronavirus-rapid-lateral-flow-tests
"
Do not use a rapid lateral flow test if you have COVID-19 symptoms. Get a PCR test and self-isolate, even if symptoms are mild.
"If you don't have symptoms you use a LFD, if that comes back positive you back it up with a PCR.
If the country had the capacity to do PCR tests for everyone that wanted one, even when they had no symptoms then that would be much better, but that lab capacity simply does not exist.
LFDs are useful as they can be done at home, can be mass produced and don't require any lab time.
Without LFDs we'd need to be in stricter lockdown, or be extending the existing lockdown for longer.
You are reading a single comment by @Greenbank and its replies.
Click here to read the full conversation.
Greenbank
And in my test case of one, it seems a lateral flow did not detect covid at 9am on Saturday in a snotty 6 year old, but a PCR did at 2pm. Since then, she had a temperature on Sunday and has woken today with a cough.
We could have accepted the LFT and as a household carried on our business assuming it was just a cold (as has been going round her class). Instead we're now on total lockdown.
My hunch is that they are just not sensitive/accurate enough.