I recognise your reasoning - at least in view of the assumptions I made in my earlier number crunching - where I tried to illustrate the unaffected chances of one person randomly receiving a false positive, which was turn followed by another etc, etc.
Firstly, let me dispel the idea that “cross contamination” could be a likely cause of this string of false positives on LFTs.
I don’t know if you’ve ever taken one but they are a rather private affair. You unwrap the swab, swirl round each of your nostrils, rub the swab around the acidity regulating liquid in the test tube, leave for a minute or two and then pour four drops on to the indicating tablet.
You then wait a maximum of 15 minutes and you have your result, but if you have a positive - as I’ve sadly experienced regularly this week (who would have guessed I’m currently self-isolating) the red lines appears almost straight away against T letter in the presence of a relative high level of the virus.
The process of taking an LFT is not a social one!
Other players could not have cross contaminated them unless (preposterous I know) they had intended to.
The wildly unlikely odds I outlined earlier were on the assumption that one incidence wouldn’t affect the incidence of another. A random person randomly conducts an LFT from a random batch at a random location, subject the 0.03% probability that they produce a false positive, a figure that takes into account that some LFTs around the country are duff and average user error.
However, given that the chances of having that 15 false positive tests occurring randomly in succession is less than the number of stars in the universe squared, then you might wager that either the supplier of the tests was as fault i.e. a faulty batch or Liverpool’s staff did something out of the ordinary. That is: did something daft, without realising for instance. A mess up we might have learned from, should we have been given the chance to do so.
Sadly that nice Mr Parry, former Liverpool board member and current Grand Fromage of the English Football League, decided there was no need to.
Incidentally, given Mr Parry’s current intransigence and refusal to conduct the investigation fans and clubs have asked for, I would proffer the best course action is for those that lost out re the Arsenal game, ie the fans that had booked travel and accommodation, tv companies and advertisers etc that missed due to Liverpool’s decision to cancel last week’s semi, to submit a joint (class action) civil claim to recover damages simultaneously against both Liverpool AND the test providers. One of them will crack then and point the finger at the liable party and we will have our answer.
Can someone please suggest how to get the Tarquins on board with this?
Alan, Alan, Alan!
