Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty told Health Secretary Steve Barclay that there is no evidence that testing travelers has any effect.
Rishi Sunak’s decision to make a U-turn and impose Covid controls on travelers from China was dismissed on Saturday night as a purely political maneuver that would not affect the rise or fall of cases in the UK.
Health Secretary Steve Barclay was briefed Thursday by Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty and told there was no clear evidence of the significant benefits of screening travelers from China. that Britain would align itself with the nations – the United States, Japan, Italy and Spain – that had already imposed such tests.
Scientists who spoke to the Observer agreed with Whitty that evaluating other people from China would make little difference. They said the number of other people inflamed was already very high in the UK and that checks at airports were unreliable in identifying disease carriers.
“I don’t think it’s very likely that the UK will gain public fitness advantages from this measure,” said Professor Mark Woolhouse of the University of Edinburgh. “This can only have been done for political reasons. “
He was supported by Professor Paul Hunter from the University of East Anglia: “Detecting serious infections at the point of entry and exit has shown, in many cases, that it is useless in controlling the disease. This has been demonstrated through studies that have been conducted before and after the onset of Covid-19. One study reported that about 60% of cases are lost this way. It will not protect the British population because it will not prevent the spread. It’s hard to see what we’ll gain through the application of those tests.
This point was backed up by Woolhouse: “Another explanation of why to enforce testing has focused on the need to keep up with potentially harmful new variants of Covid. But we already know of one that is spreading in the United States. The XBB. 1. 5 variant now accounts for about 40% of the cases there, but no one here cares. Instead, a lot of noise is being made about hypothetical variants emerging in China.
Dr Matt Kneale, co-chair of the UK Medical Association, said anything that can minimise the effect of Covid on the NHS would be welcome, but added: “I don’t think we deserve to mention China. “Hospitals were already dealing with the “heavy burden of Covid, influenza and RSV [respiratory syncytial virus],” he said. “If we can minimize Covid infections, that would be helpful, but it’s not alpha and omega. “
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The British Medical Association also warned that Britain enters the new year with the NHS “on its knees”. On Saturday, he suggested the government take extra steps to prevent a “crippling surge” in covid cases amid an already expired fitness formula. to the workforce crisis and the “twin outbreaks” of flu and Covid.
The UK doctors’ union and professionals are under pressure that it wasn’t just China’s covid risk that worried the UK and warned that the next variant “was just as likely to be grown locally as it was to be imported”.
Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday called for more effort and unity as the country entered a “new phase” in its technique to combat the pandemic, in his first public comments on Covid since his government replaced course 3 weeks ago and relaxed its rigorous policy. of lockdowns and mass testing.
“Today, prevention and the epidemic are entering a new phase. It is still an era of struggle. Everyone perseveres and works hard. Dawn is ahead of us,” he said in a televised address.