Baroness Harding, the head of NHS Test and Trace, appeared to blame the failings of her service on people demanding tests when they did not need them. She said that nearly one-third of people being tested had no symptoms, and that while this was “understandable”, it was not what people are supposed to do.
She thus exposed one of the many confusions in the government’s messages. Matt Hancock, the health secretary, has told people repeatedly that, if in doubt, they should get a test. That was briefly possible when the number of cases was low, and the expansion of testing capacity had finally got ahead of Mr Hancock’s targets.
Lady Harding fought her corner in evidence to the science and technology committee yesterday, against penetrating questions from Greg Clark, the former cabinet minister who is the committee’s chair. She insisted that she had expected an increase in demand for tests after schools reopened, but that the increase had been far greater than suggested by the modelling provided by Sage, the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies.
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