The government ignored an early warning by two Nobel prize-winning scientists that all healthcare workers should be routinely tested for coronavirus in the pandemic, the Covid inquiry has heard.
The advice came in a strongly-worded letter sent in April 2020 by the chief executive of the Francis Crick Institute, Sir Paul Nurse, and its research director, Sir Peter Ratcliffe, to the then health secretary Matt Hancock.
NHS and care home staff were not offered Covid tests until November 2020 in England, unless they had symptoms of the disease.
Matt Hancock is due to appear at the inquiry next week, along with other health ministers from the four nations of the UK.
Giving evidence, Sir Paul, who won the Nobel prize for medicine in 2001, said it was "disturbing" that he did not receive a response to his concerns until July 2020.
"For the secretary of state to ignore a letter from two Nobel laureates in physiology or medicine for three months is a little surprising, I would say," he told the inquiry.
"Rather than acknowledge they couldn't do it, because that would have indicated a mistake in their overall strategy, they remained silent."
It was likely that the decision not to routinely test NHS and care home staff led to an increase in infections and deaths in the early stages of the pandemic, he added.
Source: BBC News, 15 May 2025
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