In the Times this morning, a “government source” told @Smyth_Chris and @GregHurstTimes that Britain is testing “roughly twice as many people per head as France”.

Let’s take a look.

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Populations of https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🇬🇧" title="Flagge des Vereinigten Königreiches" aria-label="Emoji: Flagge des Vereinigten Königreiches"> & https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🇫🇷" title="Flagge von Frankreich" aria-label="Emoji: Flagge von Frankreich"> are roughly similar, so that should mean that https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🇬🇧" title="Flagge des Vereinigten Königreiches" aria-label="Emoji: Flagge des Vereinigten Königreiches"> is doing roughly twice as many tests as https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🇫🇷" title="Flagge von Frankreich" aria-label="Emoji: Flagge von Frankreich"> .

The article goes on to say that 452,679 people were tested in Britain last week:

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So if the UK Government source is honest, we’d expect to see around 226,000 people tested in France last week.

But France tested 856,404 people.

The French report is here: https://www.santepubliquefrance.fr/content/download/278831/document_file/COVID19_PE_20200903.pdf

3/8">https://www.santepubliquefrance.fr/content/d...

So when the “government sources” says that Britain is testing “roughly twice as many people per head as France”, he or she (most likely he) really means “roughly half as many people per head as France”. 4/8

Which is unsurprising. I checked yesterday where my elderly parents would need to go for a test in the UK. The answer was a 330 mile round trip to Wales - further than London to Durham, and a quite impossible day trip for an 84 yr old with possible Covid symptoms.

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I then checked on the French government website where I would need to go if I needed a test. I live in Lyon, one of France’s largest cities. Here’s a map of the 26 local testing centres:
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France is reporting many more cases than the UK, and visitors to the UK from France face quarantine.

As Trump says, if you test more you get more cases. The rates of infection in the UK are certainly far higher than the figures suggest, as it is testing far fewer people.

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The UK Government is urging people to return to offices and public transport - while being dishonest about the levels of infection compared to European countries that they deem to be too dangerous to visit.

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