By far the hardest thing I’ve found to cover during the pandemic in terms of telling the story. But it is both a political and a scientific one, bc mass testing is being bought - and sold - as a panacea. Therefore untangling the evidence from the political claims is vital. https://twitter.com/deb_cohen/status/1335234521864736768

While I’m here: had been worried reporting doubts about the Liverpool trial might be considered a Mcr sour grapes thing. It isn’t. Bc it’s not the *pilot* ppl (generally) have doubts about: pilots are good. It’s the presenting of something as a panacea before the facts are known.

If govt has a pilot and presents it as such (or just doesn’t mention it) it doesn’t get scrutinised in the same fashion: bc the expectations are different. (Stoke & Redcar are piloting too - but you don’t hear too much about them in the headlines).

If, however, a pilot is sold as the basis of a v £ national roll-out only a few days after it began; if it is at the centre of the government’s rhetoric for release from tier 3; if its (disputed) impact is cited as the basis for policy; then it warrants a different questioning.