and new columnist at the times, and for the first half of our programme, professor peter hotez is with us, expert in molecular virology and microbiology at the baylor college of medicine. what we ve known for some time about the uk s response to the covid pandemic is that the protective ring the government claimed to have thrown around care homes wasn t very protective at all. between march 2020 and april 2021, some 39,000 people died in care homes from covid. the public inquiry, which is still to begin, will examine whether more could have been done. in the interim, some of the evidence the panel will consider is now being tested in the court of public opinion. the reporter isabelle 0akshott, who co authored a book with matt hancock, has now shared with the telegraph 100,000 whatsapp messages which the former health secretary had shared with government officials. the goal of 100,000 tests per day by the end of this month. in one message, from april 14th 2020, mr hancock te
covid and therefore tough measures to keep r below one but also required more research and support from the nhs who found it quite difficult because it was a new disease and because of its nature presenting in many different ways, they found that long tarmac difficult to categorise at first and so with simon stephens will work together to bring forward clinics that could look across the range of conditions that are mostly gathered under the term long covid. i cared a lot about this for personal reasons as well as professional. we did not need to sign off from the centre, we just got on with it. do you happen to know, notwithstanding the early days of 2020, the campaign about long covid wasn t launched until october, do you know why there was that potential lag in the communication side of the debate? side of the debate? yes, i think it was essentially side of the debate? yes, i think it was essentially bleak, was essentially bleak, understandably the clinicians found it