Professor Martin Cormican:

I will try to be brief. First, it is important from an infection prevention and control point of view, which is my brief, to be very clear that no testing replaces the key message that if you have symptoms, you should be self-isolating. There is no test that will substitute for that message. I think we all know it but it needs to be repeated.

Second, as colleagues have said, it is not about antigen testing versus PCR testing. It is about what is the problem you are trying to solve and which test is fast enough, reliable enough and cost-effective enough to be deployed in the setting. Being for or against antigen testing is like being for or against the Phillips screwdriver. You choose the screwdriver for the job that you want to do. Nobody is for or against antigen testing. It is about the specific tool for the job that you want to do and that the evidences bears-----