Our response to BBC’s article on pulse oximeters today

Hello BBC,

I am a researcher at Imperial College, and a small business owner. This is not the first time I have emailed you on the topic of your reporting with regard to pulse oximeters. Now I see yet another article from the BBC persuading people to rush out and buy pulse oximeters, with very little guidance (except “check it has the CE kitemark”): https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-55733527

The £20 pricetag is very misleading. Genuine Contec pulse oximeters, for example – generally the cheapest of the legitimate, properly tested ones – cost a distributor more than £20. Add shipping and import VAT onto that, not to mention transaction fees and UK delivery costs, and there’s absolutely no way anybody can sell a safe, genuine pulse oximeter for £20. Back in February 2020? Yes, sure. But since April 2020, when manufacturers tripled their pricing? Absolutely no way.

Advising readers that they can purchase a pulse oximeter for £20 is dangerous. It drives them to buy from unscrupulous, opportunistic profiteering sellers, with no medical background whatsoever, who have been shipping in copycat/fake oximeters that cost them about $3 apiece. Advising people to check for a CE mark is of no help whatsoever. It’s well known that fake CE marks have been pouring out of factories in China.

Your article will line the pockets of criminals and equip thousands of people in the UK with untested devices which they will trust for guidance but which, rather than “save lives,” cost them.