Analysis comment

First day of govt’s new ‘essential worker’ home CV test a shambles

Site rejecting applications almost as soon as it opens. Or closed. Or open but ‘sold’ out with no option to pre-order

Last night, Health Secretary Matt Hancock promised that from this morning ‘essential workers’ would be able to order their own test-at-home kits to check their coronavirus status.

Predictably, it was a shambles.

Visitors to the page reported that it was rejecting their applications because it couldn’t confirm their details – even though they hadn’t put any in yet:

Others tried and found the site closed altogether:

Those who could get through were told there were no more tests available for the day, even though the page had only just opened. No option was offered to order a test for when it is available. Instead, they are being told to try again daily until they get one:

A Tory promise was a meaningless soundbite concealing an empty shambles. Just for a change.

Meanwhile, NHS workers continue to find accessing testing impossible.

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22 comments

  1. I think the worry now is “bullshit acclimatisation” – we’ve had it on an intravenous drip for so many months now it hardly even raises a shrug.

    1. I couldn’t even be bothered to change ‘bullshit’ to ‘fuck up’… see what I mean?

  2. In a deperate attempt to deliver on the promise regarding 100,000 tests a day by the end of the month those eligible for the test has been opened up widely also giving employers a portal to apply. Notably the list now includes big departments such as police ,fire brigade, prison staff, ministry of defence including civilian workers, DWP benefit staff, journalists utility companies etc. The big employers will be block booking slots for those self isolating. The big mistake is not giving NHS front line workers (i.e. doctors nurses etc) and care staff a separate site for priority groups. The full updated list is on the government website.

    https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-getting-tested

  3. Just another old trick from past masters of deception.Keep the peasants busy with red tape,lists and applications and form filling.They will soon get the message and burn out.Johnson must be pissing himself laughing whilst knocking back a large one. “Go easy on the tonic Mathew and make mine a large one”

  4. David McNiven sums up the Tory strategy completely, spin and lies are their mainstay. The trouble is those that vote Tory want to believe and even when you prove they are lying voters turn to willful blindness and accuse everyone of lying.

    We are constantly bombarded with propaganda and misinformation by right wing politicians of all colours, mostly repeating the same mantras, knowing that people get confused and then don’t know what to believe.

    Politics has in fact been reduced to do as you are told not what is in your interest. Government is only there or for corporate sector, you are on your own, Socialism for the rich and capitalism for the rest of us.

  5. one of hobbies is trying to figure out the tories. this is yet another case of
    fancy headline first details later (the msm are complicit in this one rarely holding them to accounteg. its all well and good promising 40,000 nurses by the end of the month but where are they coming from?

  6. One possible reason why the system was instantly overloaded might be the government’s understanding of the word “prioritise.”
    ———————————————————————————————–
    List of essential workers and those prioritised for testing (England only)
    all NHS and social care staff, including:

    doctors, nurses, midwives, paramedics, social workers, care workers, and other frontline health and social care staff including volunteers
    the support and specialist staff required to maintain the UK’s health and social care sector
    those working as part of the health and social care supply chain, including producers and distributors of medicines, and medical and personal protective equipment
    essential public services staff, including:
    prisons, probation, courts and tribunals staff, judiciary
    religious staff
    charities and workers delivering critical frontline services
    those responsible for the management of the deceased
    journalists and broadcasters covering coronavirus or providing public service broadcasting
    public safety and national security staff, including:
    police and support staff
    Ministry of Defence civilians, contractors and armed forces personnel (those critical to the delivery of critical defence and national security outputs and critical to the response to the coronavirus pandemic)
    fire and rescue service employees (including support staff),
    National Crime Agency staff, those maintaining border security, prison and probation staff and other national security roles, including those overseas
    Transport workers, including:
    those who keep the air, water, road and rail passenger and freight transport modes operating during the coronavirus response
    those working on transport systems through which supply chains pass
    education and childcare workers, including:
    support and teaching staff
    social workers
    specialist education professionals
    critical personnel in the production and distribution of food, drink and essential goods, including:
    those involved in food production, processing, distribution, sale and delivery
    those critical to the provision of other essential goods, such as medical supply chain and distribution workers, including veterinary medicine
    workers critical to the continuity of essential movement of goods
    local and national government staff critical to the effective delivery of the coronavirus response, or delivering essential public services, such as the payment of benefits
    public and environmental health staff, including in government agencies and arm’s length bodies
    frontline local authority staff, including those working with vulnerable children and adults, with victims of domestic abuse, and with the homeless and rough sleepers
    utilities, communication and financial services staff, including:
    staff needed for essential financial services provision (including but not limited to workers in banks, building societies and financial market infrastructure)
    the oil, gas, electricity and water sectors (including sewerage)
    information technology and data infrastructure sector and primary industry supplies to continue during the coronavirus response
    essential staff working in the civil nuclear, chemicals, telecommunications (including but not limited to network operations, field engineering, call centre staff, IT and data infrastructure, 999 and 111 essential services), postal services and delivery, payments providers and waste disposal sectors.
    ———————————————————————————————
    Could anyone NOT included in the above categories please raise your hands?

    1. I think with the tories appearance/image trumps *everything* thats their no1 priority, planning is far less important

  7. An interesting period of political history : the Tories caught in a scissors movement of their own making :

    1. The notably incompetent bunch of Spivs dramatically display their incompetence both before and during the Covid-19 outbreak.

    2. They ramp up the panic factor and ill thought-out policy in addressing the outbreak to such an extent that they create stampedes that emphasize their incompetence even more.

    It’d be funny if it weren’t serious.

  8. Anyone remotely surprised the site fell over ?
    Didn’t need a genius to forecast what would happen. Especially as it came from the mouth of Matt ( The Thick Of It ) Hancock.
    When in trouble promise something , anything, the bigger the better,
    So, getting flak on PPE ? Announce 100,000 tests a day will be happening by the end of the month.
    Getting flak on remote locations of test centres ? Announce ‘ from today ‘ people will be able to access and request a test via the Internet..

    This government continues to demonstrate its way out its depth.
    Arrogance and lies do not hide their utter incompetence.

    1. Matt (The Thick Of It) Hancock? That’s generous. How about just Matt (Thick) Hancock?

  9. BBC just now said the government’s estimate of “essential worker” numbers was “up to ten million” – I think that might seriously underestimate demand.
    BBC also said that up to twenty thousand kits might be available.
    That’s a five-hundredth of the daily demand if each worker feels he/she’s being exposed once a day.
    Everyone at risk will want testing every time they’re exposed – every employer with eligible workers will face demands from them to apply through the block route too.

    To be effective, testing has to be coupled with contact tracing and isolation – otherwise it’s a complete waste of resources – a publicity stunt.

    Trunt’s delusions of adequacy seem to be getting worse – now he thinks injecting sick people with Domestos while under a sun lamp might win the war on this goddam commie Chinavirus – and that he’d better announce it at a press conference before he forgets or somebody else patents it.
    I often wake up with ideas that seem like genius until I’m fully awake.
    The leader of the free world is apparently in a constant state of half-dreaming, half-conscious.

  10. As I get older, I become easily confused. I thought a lock-down meant that people would be isolated in their homes until limited contacts stopped the spread of the virus. Then test; trace & isolate…..makes sense ……….however, I didn’t realise that well over 100K people arrived in our island fortress every week to keep the virus alive. One person can further infect around 100K people in two months.

    I became more confused when Boris washed his hands of everything & stopped any pretence @ Testing; Tracing contacts & Isolation because he’d left everything too late & it could no longer work in London….population too dense & too many people infected, but still the planes arrive @ Heathrow carrying passengers from hotspots throughout the world. There are many areas in GB of low population, where Test;Trace & Isolate would not be a problem. The NHS could be concentrated on the hotspots of GB.

    The virus crossed the animal/human barrier in November, in China. It was quickly spread by passengers travelling by plane to Europe via South Korea. The planes keep flying……….I.m confused.

    1. Steve Richards
      Anyone travelling on an aeroplane at the moment is a complete fuckwit Cockwomble Darwin award winner
      Unless those in first class are immune by birth
      Did I mention 3 ball bag Retards who should be shoved up a dogs arse and the dog cremated

      1. Doug. Don’t beat around the bush, tell it straight.

  11. And to top it off, I had an email from talktalk telling me they’re doing the broadband at these nightingale hospitals…

    God help them. (The nightingales).

  12. The “TEST” will only show people who are currently infected.It will not show if someone has had the virus and recovered- bear in mind that there are reports of re-infection.
    It will guide the employer who it can send into the frontline immediately and those employees they will have to wait a while for.
    A test for anti-bodies has not regulatory approval in UKas of yet.

    Is track and tracing being performed?

    This is too little to late.

    The “TEST” is only relevant for that moment in time, therefore will need to be repeated

    Expect words of wisdom ,enlightenment and propoganda on “SICKNOTES” return on Monday.

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