Published January 22, 2022 at 08.33
Domestic. PCR testing for covid-19 has so far cost Sweden just over SEK 22 billion, despite the fact that PCR technology is often unnecessary. Experts are now criticizing the twisted explanations for why the expensive tests would be needed and demanding that the government switch to cheap antigen tests instead, reports Dagens Nyheter.
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KI professor Anders Björkman believes that Sweden should to a greater extent have used cheap rapid tests instead of the expensive expensive PCR tests.
– PCR testing is high degree meaningless for infection tracing. If you get an answer after several days, the test is out of date and you may have already infected others, says Anders Björkman, who welcomes the Public Health Agency's new test strategy.
At the same time, the PCR tests have created many new entrepreneurs who have been able to earn a substantial hack to sell test results to the regions. How many test companies have been created and how many have become rich selling tests for the 22 billion has not yet been fully clarified.
However, Sara Byfors from the Swedish Public Health Agency defends the large-scale use of expensive PCR tests in a written comment to DN:
“The PCR tests have a higher sensitivity and accuracy and are therefore better than the antigen tests for the detection of sars-cov-2. Among other things, a false negative result can lead to an increased risk of infection when the person tested do not become aware of their ongoing covid-19 disease, nor are they given any rules of conduct “.