Main content

False negatives, testing capacity and pheasants

The government is relying on testing programmes to prevent a second wave of Covid-19 infections. But how accurate are the swab tests used to diagnose the disease?

As lockdowns begin to lift the government is relying on testing and contact tracing programmes to prevent a second wave of Covid-19 infections. But how accurate are the swab tests used to diagnose the disease?

The UK Statistics Authority has criticised the government for the way it reports testing figures, saying it鈥檚 not surprising that these numbers 鈥渁re so widely criticised and often mistrusted.鈥 We take a look at how the government achieved its target of developing a daily testing capacity of 200,000 by the end of May.

Can we really have only 60 harvests left in the world? Plus, the very pleasant Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall has a pleasant pheasant question for us.

Available now

28 minutes

Clip

Broadcasts

  • Wed 3 Jun 2020 09:00
  • Fri 5 Jun 2020 16:30

Just how reliable is our intuition? Find out with The Open University

OU Connect: Put your brain to the test with our new mind-bending probability problems!

When can you trust statistics?

When can you trust statistics?

麻豆社 Ideas discovers three easy ways to help make sense of statistics.

Download this programme

Download this programme

Subscribe to the More or Less Podcast or download individual episodes.