Operation Moonflop?

Whether you are pro or anti lockdown, everyone agrees that the key to controlling the Covid-19 pandemic is to have swift and effective testing, enabling people with infections and their contacts to be rapidly identified. The UK government have now spent north of £300m on their 'Operation Moonshot' (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/05/operation-moonshot-rapid-covid-test-missed-over-50-of-cases-in-pilot). Quite apart from the ridiculous name, the test on which it is based (OptiGene Direct RT-Lamp) might be fast but it seems to miss more than 53% of infections. This was revealed in an October study, in Manchester and Salford, by the Mass Testing Expert Group (MTEG). In spite of this, the Moonshot is going to be applied (great fanfare) to the city of Liverpool (another Northern 'hotspot' for infections), in the hope that it will allow people to be able to continue working safely in care homes and hospitals, without passing on the virus. If the MTEG results are anything like correct, this test is wholly unsuited to the task. Results have to be fast and accurate for any testing programme to have validity. We seem to be throwing a lot of money at poorly-evaluated, hare-brained (without wishing to be cruel to the lagomorphs) schemes.