who has had a test and, given that it took about four days for the test results come back, and they stayed in hospital therefore for those four days, that test could come back negative but the person could have caught covid 19 in hospital in that time and that is obviously bad for that individual but it s also bad for the care home because then they would be going back to a care home with a negative test result, people thinking they had tested negative but having covid 19. secondly, the biggest challenge in this space was that the clinical advice at the time was if he didn t have symptoms and you took a test, then it was likely to give you a false negative results and that the clinical advice stayed all the way through this period and then was changed later. and then the third point is that the most important thing to do, which is what we did in the advice that we gave to care homes starting in february, is to make sure there is infection
macro at that point. the challenge though, was, the scale of the capacity. and i had driven that as hard as i could within phe with my indirect, therefore hands on the levers. then in the middle of march we had a meeting in downing street at which we had an array of test providers, we had the phe team who were doing that, the testing, and i took personal charge of the testing. i know you wanted to expand capacity, i mjust i know you wanted to expand capacity, i m just trying to understand the strategy. you confirmed you were not offered south korean style test and trace as an option. figs korean style test and trace as an 0 tion. , . korean style test and trace as an otion. , ., .,, korean style test and trace as an otion. a . .,, a, korean style test and trace as an otion. a . , option. as far as i can remember. did ou option. as far as i can remember. did you ever option. as far as i can remember. did you ever ask option. as far as i can remember. did you ever ask sage optio
and it s an absolutely accurate reflection of the debate, i regret, i should have stuck with my guns and said, well, there is, even if it is uncertain and even if it is relatively small, we should base policy on that. because even though the formal advice that i was receiving was it is asymptomatic transmission, it s unlikely and we should not base policy on it, that was, and i should have overruled that. . . . was, and i should have overruled that. , , ., ., was, and i should have overruled that. , ., was, and i should have overruled that. ., ., that. this is an important point and ou that. this is an important point and you mention that. this is an important point and you mention the that. this is an important point and you mention the who that. this is an important point and you mention the who and - that. this is an important point and you mention the who and you - that. this is an important point and you mention the who and you said | that. this is an important point and - y
when tests were available. and he said this followed clinical advice and he said he followed the clinical advice throughout. and he said the clinical advice at that time, at the early stages of the pandemic, was that a test on anybody who did not have symptoms could return a false negative. he was talking as well about any blindspots, if you like, in the policy in those early stages and he said, yes, there was a need for a rabidly scalable testing response and he said that had not been, it was not part of the uk s pandemic planning at that point, he said the nhs response, the scientific response was very strong but he said there wasn t in terms of their pandemic planning, a rabidly scalable testing response. i think we can now listen back to a clip
mcnamara, came into number ten downing street and according to mr cummings said this country is heading for a disaster, i think we re going to kill thousands, is no plan for this, we are in huge trouble. ~ . . plan for this, we are in huge trouble. ~ ., , ., , plan for this, we are in huge trouble. ~ ., , ., trouble. was there a plan? yes, and at that point trouble. was there a plan? yes, and at that point we trouble. was there a plan? yes, and at that point we had trouble. was there a plan? yes, and at that point we had published - trouble. was there a plan? yes, and at that point we had published it. . at that point we had published it. so at that point we had published it. 50 helen mcnamara was wrong or do you think she did not say that? i have absolutely no idea but what i can tell you as we the action plan of the actions we might need to take including these extraordinary unprecedented actions and the question was, when to make the judgment to do it, when to put in place if