Government’s flagship Covid mass testing scheme was ‘never going to work’

The government’s flagship ‘Operation Moonshot’ mass testing programme was never going to succeed, one of England’s top medical advisers told the Covid inquiry.

The scheme, which was unveiled by then health secretary Matt Hancock in September 2020, was intended to introduce same-day Covid testing for up to 10 million people in England.

Leaked government plans published in the British Medical Journal suggest it was expected to cost £100bn and ministers hoped it was the key to returning to normal life.

But Jonathan Van-Tam, the country’s deputy chief medical officer throughout the coronavirus pandemic, admitted in today’s inquiry hearing that he believed it was doomed from day one.

The respiratory viruses expert was among the top scientists invited to the first meeting on the initiative in August 2020, which he said he left thinking: “I just couldn’t see it working.

“I tried to offer some non-negative, constructive comments, but I couldn’t see it working, ever.”

Van-Tam explained: “My understanding of Moonshot was that it was to restore the UK to a point where we had almost no Covid. To do that, we would detect every single case cooking in the UK at the same time – mass population testing in a very short window of time.

“I never got to the point where I understood whether this could be done in one day or three days, so I never really kind of understood the concept and it didn't make any epidemiological sense to me.”

Van-Tam said that even testing every Briton at the same time on a given day would fail to detect all positive cases, because of the lag between initial infection and the onset of symptoms.

Global accountancy firm Deloitte was handed a major contract to oversee Operation Moonshot, in what Labour MP Clive Lewis dubbed “potentially the biggest NHS privatisation in history”.

But by October 2020, the scheme had been quietly swallowed up into the Test and Trace project. In handwritten notes from that month, then prime minister Boris Johnson wrote: “What happened to mass testing? What about the Moonshot?”

Ministers lavished £37bn – equivalent to a fifth of the NHS’s budget at the time – on Test and Trace in May 2020. The following year, the House of Commons’ spending watchdog warned the scheme had failed its “main objective”.

I tried to offer some non-negative, constructive comments, but I couldn’t see it working, everJonathan Van-Tam, England’s former deputy chief medical officer

Earlier today, Van-Tam’s former boss, England’s chief medical officer Chris Whitty, told the inquiry that he had warned government figures to stop discussing herd immunity policies because of their lack of understanding.

And during a mammoth evidence session yesterday, Whitty recounted that Van-Tam raised concerns about the virus as early as January 2020.

Addressing this, Van-Tam said he respected the approach of his “great friend” and was “perfectly content with the response I received”.

He added: “It wouldn't have been possible to kind of wake up SAGE and wake up COBRA because I was getting a bit excited about something based on instinct and there wasn't a lot of data on.

“That position changed of course, very quickly indeed.”

Van-Tam also confirmed he was among the top UK scientists not consulted on the government’s controversial ‘Eat Out to Help Out’ scheme, telling the inquiry he learned about it “on TV”.

He also revealed abuse directed towards him, including death threats so severe the police requested he leave his home “in the middle of the night”.

The inquiry continues.