16,000 Covid test results got lost because the system uses Excel – 15 scathing takedowns
It recently emerged that almost 16,000 coronavirus test results had temporarily been lost due to a technical error.
What probably happened was that the full data set was sent via a type of file with unlimited capacity, but when the information was copied into Excel, the programme’s limit of either 65,536 or 1,048,576 rows – depending on the version – any excess rows were lost.
In this case, 15,841 test results effectively disappeared.
In the UK the number of cases rose rapidly.
But the public – and authorities – are only learning this now because these cases were only published now as a backlog.The reason was apparently that the database is managed in Excel and the number of columns had reached the maximum. pic.twitter.com/X4a8keSEHK
— Max Roser (@MaxCRoser) October 5, 2020
“World beating.“
No doubt there’ll be a full and sincere apology, accompanied by an immediate improvement to the way the system is run.
Of course, it was too huge a cock-up – gaffe just isn’t strong enough – for Twitter to ignore, so here are the best reactions we spotted.
1.
The 'world beating' Serco Test and Trace system is being run on Excel instead of database software – which has caused the latest issues.
Next they'll tell us it's run on Windows 95 and they manually back it up on floppy disks each night.
— Dr Rosena Allin-Khan (@DrRosena) October 5, 2020
2.
I don’t know where the government buys its software from, but I can get the latest version of Excel for less than £12 billion
— Dr Phil Hammond (@drphilhammond) October 5, 2020
3.
excel waiting for that covid data: pic.twitter.com/phWEeKsLGs
— Rob Holley (@robholley) October 5, 2020
4.
Trying to run the test and trace system using Excel like trying to do a Marvel movie's special FX in Microsoft Paint.
— Sooz Kempner (@SoozUK) October 5, 2020
5.
Little way into Matt Hancock's statement on how 16,000 test results went missing because the Excel spreadsheet had too many columns. No mention yet of "Operation Moonshot."
— Tom Peck (@tompeck) October 5, 2020
6.
actually amazed our world beating Test & Trace system is running on Excel when I assumed it was being done in crayon on a napkin
— dave ❄️ 🥕 🧻 (@davemacladd) October 5, 2020
7.
— Chris Boyd 🇬🇧🇵🇭 (@paperghost) October 5, 2020
8.
get mr clippy before a select committee or hold him in contempt
— Mollie Goodfellow (@hansmollman) October 5, 2020
