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Oxbridge gets private Covid tests: pool resources to test us all!
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Michael Morgan, Warwick Socialist Students
All Cambridge student households have been receiving random testing from the university, while the NHS is only testing individuals showing symptoms. In the Cambridge system, a household of ten students puts swabs into a shared bag. If any come back positive, they are then tested individually.
In similar fashion, Oxford University Hospital Trust - which processes NHS tests for the government - has, in fact, also processed tests for a private school and Oxford University. It just goes to show that it's one pandemic for the rich and privileged, and another for the working class!
Students at universities with less generous funding than Oxbridge will instead have to go through an already-overwhelmed NHS testing service. At Worcester, for example, students rely on the NHS system, with only one walk-in testing centre and the app to help control the spread.
It seems some students are born with a silver swab in their mouths. The mix of private and public in the testing system reveals the deep divide between rich and poor.
But the epidemiologist Julian Peto estimated in April that the UK has the capacity for ten million tests a day, or the whole population each week. Private testing resources should be brought into a publicly owned system which can pool these resources and guarantee efficient testing for all.
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The coronavirus crisis has laid bare the class character of society in numerous ways. It is making clear to many that it is the working class that keeps society running, not the CEOs of major corporations.
The results of austerity have been graphically demonstrated as public services strain to cope with the crisis.
The government has now ripped up its 'austerity' mantra and turned to policies that not long ago were denounced as socialist. But after the corona crisis, it will try to make the working class pay for it, by trying to claw back what has been given.
- The Socialist Party's material is more vital than ever, so we can continue to report from workers who are fighting for better health and safety measures, against layoffs, for adequate staffing levels, etc.
- When the health crisis subsides, we must be ready for the stormy events ahead and the need to arm workers' movements with a socialist programme - one which puts the health and needs of humanity before the profits of a few.
Inevitably, during the crisis we have not been able to sell the Socialist and raise funds in the ways we normally would.
We therefore urgently appeal to all our viewers to donate to our Fighting Fund.
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