Experts from the Government suggested that Britain’s mass coronavirus testing program could be discontinued in the new Year.
Professor Lucy Chappell, chief scientist adviser to the Department of Health, stated to MPs that officials would continue the routine asymptomatic Swabbing Scheme until 2021.
However, she acknowledged that ministers were considering removing lateral flow testing from their widespread use “beyond January”.
Experts agree that it is time to change who is being tested, so the UK can learn to live with the virus.
No10 launched its ambitious mass testing scheme to great fanfare back in April. But the system — a key part of the £37billion Test and Trace programme — has repeatedly been derided since its inception.
All adults have the right to two free test kits per week. These can be collected at pharmacies or ordered online.
They are meant to be used by people if they don’t show symptoms of Covid.
However, the kits have been criticized for being inaccurate, especially when self administered.
Whitehall sources already confirm that the system will soon lead to taxpayers paying billions of pounds.
Professor Lucy Chappell (left), chief scientific adviser to the Department of Health and Social Care, said the Government was committed to mass testing — including of schoolchildren — until at least January but is considering dropping the programme after that. But Sir Andrew Pollard (right), who was part of the team that created the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, said the Government should move quicker and end mass testing in schools earlier this winter
ENGLAND TESTING – England’s lateral flow testing soared in March after No10 introduced a program to swab every schoolchild
Professor Chappell answered a question about whether the nation should stop testing asymptomatic patients at the Commons Science and Technology Committee.
“And I know that other organizations are evaluating at which point we reconsider testing asymptomatic people beyond January, beyond spring.
She said that she hoped that in five to ten years, we wouldn’t all be doing lateral flow testing. There is clearly a point in between those five years.
“Between January and now, it’s evident that we have committed ourselves to testing. We are now considering where we want to go beyond January, beyond the spring.
Sir Andrew Pollard was part of the team who created the AstraZeneca vaccination. He said that the Government should stop mass testing in schools for asymptomatic diseases before January.
As part of a measure to reduce the spread of the disease in schools, secondary school students and college students in England are required to take two weekly lateral flow tests.
If they test positive they have to stay at home until a PCR test confirms they do not actually have the virus at least two days later — even if they are asymptomatic.
Sir Andrew addressed MPs during the briefing. He stated that it was vital that children remain in school.
He said that the psychological effects of being forced to stay at home, which had the greatest impact on children, was the most significant.
Professor Pollard argued only symptomatic pupils — who would already be required to stay home because of their illness — should have to take a test.
He told MPs that ‘Clearly, the large amount testing in schools is very disruptive to the system. Whether that is the individual child being tested positive but otherwise completely healthy, or because of the concerns that this raises more broadly within the school.
“We are aware that families may take their children out of school because someone has tested positive.
“So, I believe there is a huge effect of widespread testing in schools.
“I think that we should probably move in the pandemic over this winter and maybe towards the winter to a totally different system of clinically driven testing.
“In other words, it is better to test people who are sick than to have regular testing for people who are well.
Sir Andrew said: “That drives a lot of these activities that happen, especially in schools, when you have lots of symptoms testing.”
He stated that it was a ‘certain future’ and not to be testing at this rate of Covid forever’. He also said, “We need to consider how that transition works.”
“There is clearly a lot more transmission right now and that adds additional pressures to the NHS because there are some individuals coming into hospital and more than ever before. But, I think we’re in improving condition.
Test and Trace data shows that the percentage of children who are told they have Covid by lateral flow devices is now doubled (red line). More than one in ten positive lateral flow results are incorrect
The mass testing scheme — a watered down version of No10’s ambitious ‘Operation Moonshot’ 10million-tests-a-day project — was launched on April 9.
Matt Hancock, former Health Secretary said that it would be a ‘one our most effective weapons in the fight against this virus’.
The tests were used previously in schools, hospitals, and care home settings.
Ministers spent £2.8billion on hundreds of millions of the kits, which give a result in as little as 30 minutes. They have been shown not to catch infections in as many as 40% of cases.
Numerous studies have shown the kits are far less accurate when self-administered – which is how they’re used across the UK.
Leaked emails from Department of Health in April showed that top officials feared they only caught 10% of infections this way.