Spain says coronavirus tests it bought from China are failing to detect positive cases (only 30% correct of the time)

CGiRanger · Mar 26, 2020

Source: https://www.businessinsider.com/cor...id-tests-sent-from-china-missing-cases-2020-3

So apparently, there's a problem with these too:

Microbiology experts in Spain have said that rapid coronavirus tests that the country bought from China are not consistently detecting positive cases.

The error was discovered as Spain is in the grip of one of the worst coronavirus outbreaks in the world, second only to Italy in the number of reported deaths.

Studies on the tests done in Spain found that they had only 30% sensitivity, meaning they correctly identify people with the virus only 30% of the time, sources told the Spanish newspaper El País.

Those sources told the newspaper that the tests should have a sensitivity of more than 80%. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says rapid tests for influenza are required to have 80% sensitivity.

The studies prompted the Spanish Society of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology to formally recommend not using these tests, El País reported. Health workers are now meant to use other tests that take longer to give a result.

Fernando Simón, the director of Spain's health-emergencies coordination center, said on Thursday that Spain checked 9,000 of the tests, found that their results were not consistent enough, and decided to return them.

But China seems to be confused about something:

The tests were made by a Chinese biotechnology company called Bioeasy, El País reported. Other countries, including Georgia, have bought the company's tests.

The Chinese Embassy in Spain said on Twitter on Thursday that the medical supplies China was donating to other countries did not include Bioeasy products.

It said that the Chinese Ministry of Commerce gave Spain a list of manufacturers and that Bioeasy was not among them, adding that it had not been given a license from China's National Medical Products Administration to sell its products.

Medical professionals in the Czech Republic have also said that rapid tests from China were not working properly, but it was not clear whether these tests were also made by Bioeasy.

So Spain says they got tests from a Chinese company which don't work, that China says was not part of the donation and didn't have a license to sell products. So Spain bought these from a company in China that apparently wasn't supposed to be selling them as they supposedly didn't have a license (according to the Chinese Embassy).

eonden · Mar 26, 2020

Seems Spain bought them from another spanish seller but the tests were supposed to be CE certified (which should mean that the tests work).

Still, of all the tests, only 9000 tests were from that company and that should be put on the OT.

Officer Big Mac · Mar 26, 2020

What do you mean, Doc? All the best stuff is made in China.

Lakitu · Mar 26, 2020

Could this be why it is significantly rising in Spain?

Wamb0wneD · Mar 26, 2020

Oh god...

Astandahl · Mar 26, 2020

Good luck

808s & Villainy · Mar 26, 2020

Bioeasy is going to be in so much trouble

CGiRanger · Mar 26, 2020

eonden said:
Seems Spain bought them from another spanish seller but the tests were supposed to be CE certified (which should mean that the tests work).

Still, of all the tests, only 9000 tests were from that company and that should be put on the OT.

I updated it, but I was confused as to whether the 9000 represented the entire shipment from Bioeasy or not. At the end of the article it states that it wasn't clear how many of the 640,000 tests they got (from both China and S. Korea) were made by Bioeasy. I would imagine if they had more than the 9000, just finding that number of faulty tests would be enough to be suspicious of the entire batch.

Steel · Mar 26, 2020

Lakitu said:
Could this be why it is significantly rising in Spain?

They were behind on tests anyway. Even with false negatives they're behind.

FantasticMrFoxdie · Mar 26, 2020

I just can't

I was wondering when this sort of story was going to pop-up. Assuming there are definitely companies out there taking shortcuts and not throughly making sure given the pressure of time and meeting the demand

Deleted member 44129 · Mar 26, 2020

Maybe the West shouldnt be relying on China so much. They've got a shitty human rights record and are ready to occupy the vaccuum left behind now America is impotent.

Xando · Mar 26, 2020

Rumor is they bought them from a non chinese certified retailer. Is that correct?

Hey Please · Mar 26, 2020

Jesus H Christ!

Feels like EU needs to start production en masse somewhere in-house for distribution among its member countries asap.

Maccix · Mar 26, 2020

Is that why China cases are so low?

ItIsOkBro · Mar 26, 2020

counterfeit coronavirus test kits. what a world

eonden · Mar 26, 2020

Xando said:
Rumor is they bought them from a non chinese certified retailer. Is that correct?

Yes, from a Spanish distributor, but the tests were CE certified (European homologation), which should mean they work, so Bioeasy are still on a big mess:

El Gobierno asegura que no compró los test rápidos defectuosos en China sino a través de un distribuidor español

Sanidad reitera que ha devuelto la partida de 9.000 pruebas diagnósticas y que estas contaban con homologación europea

elpais.com

CGiRanger said:
I updated it, but I was confused as to whether the 9000 represented the entire shipment from Bioeasy or not. At the end of the article it states that it wasn't clear how many of the 640,000 tests they got (from both China and S. Korea) were made by Bioeasy. I would imagine if they had more than the 9000, just finding that number of faulty tests would be enough to be suspicious of the entire batch.

The lot that was pushed back was only 9000. The rest of the lots were OK (or they didnt say anything at all about them.

MajesticSoup · Mar 26, 2020

Its crazy how unprepared countries are. I assumed Spain could rely on other eu countries instead of buying kits from China.

Ensorcell · Mar 26, 2020

Well that is one way for the CCP to keep their numbers low.

Funky Papa · Mar 26, 2020

The explanations from the Chinese embassy would be riotous if the situation wasn't so dire.

Somebody explain me how the fuck a biosciences company, of which are all supposedly tightly under control of the Chinese government, had no license to sell their products (?) yet they were allowed to export kits in the thousands (???) to a foreign reseller like no thing.

Either the Chinese government has no control whatsoever over its biotech industry or they are just happy to sell the world the kind of junk they don't want and pretend they are being helpful.

All of this regardless of the utter shambles plaguing the Spanish government.

MajesticSoup said:
Its crazy how unprepared countries are. I assumed Spain could rely on other eu countries instead of buying kits from China.

That's the thing. Reliable tests can be done in a lab, but it takes days. AFAIK rapid tests are only being mass manufactured in China and South Korea, so countries all over the world are importing them in huge quantities.

eonden said:
Yes, from a Spanish distributor, but the tests were CE certified (European homologation), which should mean they work, so Bioeasy are still on a big mess:

The absolute lack of information about that unknown local distributor is one of those things that makes me go "umm". Even more so when considering how the Ministry wasn't upfront about the purchase from the get go, leaving the public to speculate if it was a national purchase or something from a regional government when the story first came out.

eonden · Mar 26, 2020

Funky Papa said:
The utter lack of information about that local distributor makes you go "umm".

Yeah, this sounds more like "we cannot really mess with China right now" but regardless, having EU homologation with shit test is still a YIKES. But as of now we gotta take what the government says to the face.

Tarkus · Mar 26, 2020

"Made in China" usually means cheap shit. So horrible in this situation.

smurfx · Mar 26, 2020

i've read reports of a lot of people testing positive show no symptoms and it leaves me wondering if a lot of those tests were false positives. since so many cities are having problems getting tests in the first place i doubt many are able to use different ones to confirm cases.

shadow2810 · Mar 26, 2020

Maccix said:
Is that why China cases are so low?

Ensorcell said:
Well that is one way for the CCP to keep their numbers low.

Doubt it, since China is actually forcing people to stay the fuck out of public space

mugurumakensei · Mar 26, 2020

Incorrect reading. 30% of the time it's right 100% of the time and if you restrict your sample to just that group you can actually say that this test has 100% accuracy in detecting coronavirus

Maccix · Mar 26, 2020

shadow2810 said:
Doubt it, since China is actually forcing people to stay the fuck out of public space

Was meant sarcastically because of all the conspiracy theories about Chinas numbers flying around.

Zweizer · Mar 26, 2020

Officer Big Mac said:
What do you mean, Doc? All the best stuff is made in China.

Ensorcell said:
Well that is one way for the CCP to keep their numbers low.

Lots of people not reading the OP here.

I'm more curious as to how it got EU certified.

Belgium also put out a quick test that they said was "promising" then you read the small print and it's correct 2 times out of 10. I facepalmed at the apparent jubilation of the news here.

alstrike · Mar 26, 2020

We have absolute muppets in charge 🤦🏻‍♂️

ItchyTasty · Mar 26, 2020

Disheartening to see the situation rising up in Spain right now, sad that this probably contributed

eonden · Mar 26, 2020

Zweizer said:
Lots of people not reading the OP here.

I'm more curious as to how it got EU certified.

Belgium also put out a quick test that they said was "promising" then you read the small print and it's correct 2 times out of 10. I facepalmed at the apparent jubilation of the news here.

They probably faked the EU certification. Also regarding the Belgium stuff, at least they did like Spain and tested their viability before using them I guess.

Fisty · Mar 26, 2020

Wow a coin flip would be more accurate

Strike · Mar 26, 2020

What a mess.

chrisPjelly · Mar 26, 2020

hhhhmmmmMMMMMMMMMMMM

Armadilo · Mar 26, 2020

Maccix said:
Is that why China cases are so low?

Most likely the government didn't actually tell the truth as they did start off by telling lies as soon as it started to spread

ccbfan · Mar 26, 2020

So Spain bought bootleg test kits from a unlicensed chinese company.

you would think a government would be competent enough to check these thing.

blitzblake · Mar 26, 2020

mugurumakensei said:
Incorrect reading. 30% of the time it's right 100% of the time and if you restrict your sample to just that group you can actually say that this test has 100% accuracy in detecting coronavirus

I can't tell if you're trying to be witty but they mean 70% of positive cases come back negative.

Dinda · Mar 26, 2020

eonden said:
Yes, from a Spanish distributor, but the tests were CE certified (European homologation), which should mean they work, so Bioeasy are still on a big mess:

Zweizer said:
I'm more curious as to how it got EU certified.

A CE Sign doesn't mean shit, and it isn't a official certification that it works or anything. It just says that it fullfilles certain manufacturing and health etc standards that the EU requires.

Deleted member 3812 · Mar 26, 2020

The article in OP further reported that other countries purchased coronavirus testing kits from this unlicensed Chinese company:

The tests were made by a Chinese biotechnology company called Bioeasy, El País reported. Other countries, including Georgia, have bought the company's tests.

The Chinese Embassy in Spain said on Twitter on Thursday that the medical supplies China was donating to other countries did not include Bioeasy products.

It said that the Chinese Ministry of Commerce gave Spain a list of manufacturers and that Bioeasy was not among them, adding that it had not been given a license from China's National Medical Products Administration to sell its products.

Medical professionals in the Czech Republic have also said that rapid tests from China were not working properly, but it was not clear whether these tests were also made by Bioeasy.

Brinbe · Mar 26, 2020

sounds about right

Megawarrior · Mar 26, 2020

This is a hot mess.

mutantmagnet · Mar 26, 2020

Clown shoes.

KDR_11k · Mar 26, 2020

Zweizer said:
Lots of people not reading the OP here.

I'm more curious as to how it got EU certified.

Belgium also put out a quick test that they said was "promising" then you read the small print and it's correct 2 times out of 10. I facepalmed at the apparent jubilation of the news here.

CE is a self-certification, you just declare that you made sure your goods are compliant and get hammered if you lied.

eonden · Mar 26, 2020

Dinda said:
A CE Sign doesn't mean shit, and it isn't a official certification that it works or anything. It just says that it fullfilles certain manufacturing and health etc standards that the EU requires.

It means they are supposed to be EU compliant (and in the case of bio products, that entails a maximum lvl of error). They will get hammered for faking it.

Funky Papa · Mar 27, 2020

There were not just 9,000 test kits, but 50,000.

Something smells rotten. The Government declined at first to name the purchaser, leading people to believe it could have been something ordered from Madrid or any other region, then it only recognized the manufacturer after the Chinese embassy decided to wash their hands and named it, and now we are learning that it was a significant chunk of the first and most needed rapid tests acquired by the nation itself. And so far neither China nor Spain is naming that mysterious local distributor in charge of the sale.

There needs to be a massive investigation in the way things are being handled once everything is settled. On both the Government and China. This fucking reeks.

Sumio Mondo · Mar 27, 2020

Oh god, hope this isn't the same for other countries as well then...

Deleted member 10428 · Mar 27, 2020

CE? I think it's far more likely that they were marked with the ripoff "China Export" CE mark that most Chinese exported crap come with to confuse consumers.

Joni · Mar 27, 2020

Zweizer said:
Belgium also put out a quick test that they said was "promising" then you read the small print and it's correct 2 times out of 10. I facepalmed at the apparent jubilation of the news here.

Correct '2 out of 10 times' is a meaningless statement. Does it give false positives or false negatives? The one test I have read about gives 30% false negatives, but that means 70% of the positives don't need to be further tested anymore for instance. That is a huge gain already.

Acidote · Mar 27, 2020

Danneee said:
CE? I think it's far more likely that they were marked with the ripoff "China Export" CE mark that most Chinese exported crap come with to confuse consumers.

No. Two companies, one from Germany (Dakks) and one from Belgium (Qarad) homologated the tests. Without testing them. Just by reading the documentation because testing is apparently not required for the CE.

Keikaku · Mar 27, 2020

Bioeasy huh? Sounds legit.

Deleted member 49535 · Mar 27, 2020

My government's incompetence is fucking embarrassing.

Deleted member 10428 · Mar 27, 2020

Acidote said:
No. Two companies, one from Germany (Dakks) and one from Belgium (Qarad) homologated the tests. Without testing them. Just by reading the documentation because testing is apparently not required for the CE.

Ah, I see.

Spain says coronavirus tests it bought from China are failing to detect positive cases (only 30% correct of the time)

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