THE UK Health Secretary has been slammed for “mansplaining” Covid testing to a medical professional after an answer he gave to the SNP’s Dr Philippa Whitford in the House of Commons.

Matt Hancock stands accused of being “rude and patronising” in his response, in which he said that Whitford, a doctor for nearly four decades, should “go back [and] study the details”.

Whitford had raised the concerns of “many public health experts” around the use of Innova lateral flow tests for mass community testing, “especially as the manufacturers do not recommend them for detecting coronavirus in people who are asymptomatic”.

The SNP MP for Central Ayrshire said the Tory Health Secretary “must be aware of the paper from Liverpool University based on his own department’s quality assurance program”.

She went on: “The comparison of lateral flow tests with PCR in over 3000 people revealed a sensitivity of just 48% meaning that more than half of those with the virus would be falsely reassured they were negative. The test even missed 30% of those with a high viral load, those most likely to be infectious.”

PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests directly detect the presence of an antigen, rather than the presence of the body’s immune response, or antibodies.

By detecting viral RNA, which will be present in the body before antibodies form or symptoms of the disease are present, the tests can tell whether or not someone has the virus very early on.

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Lateral flow tests, which are much faster and less labour intensive, look for the presence of a specific biological marker. They have also been found to be much less reliable.

Whitford, the SNP’s health spokesperson at Westminster, went on: “I understand the wish to use quick tests for casefinding, but surely he should now delay rolling them out to 67 other local authorities and not proceed with plans to spend £43 billion for a test which is so inaccurate.

“Would it not be better to focus funding on easier and quicker access to PCR tests? With more than half of all positive cases being missed, does he accept that despite the proposal by [Dido Harding, the head of England’s ‘NHS Test and Trace’] these tests cannot be used to release people who are contacts from isolating?

“And on the basis of this study the Liverpool Health Board have abandoned plans to use lateral flow tests to check visitors to care homes, so will he be recommending that local authorities and providers return to PCR testing for care home staff and family visitors to reduce the risk to the most vulnerable residents?”

In an answer that SNP MP Joanna Cherry suggested showed he “misunderstood the question”, Matt Hancock said: “I think this argument against testing is wrong.”

He went on: “I think that we should test, test, test, and that’s what we’re doing on this side and this Government. And we are working very closely with the Government in Scotland from the same party that she represents to make sure that we use testing as widely as possible to find people who’ve got this virus.

“Yes of course different tests have different characteristics and the lateral flow tests find around 70% of those who are infectious.”

A recent article in the British Medical Journal stated: “Innova’s poor sensitivity in asymptomatic people in field settings should have been expected. The largest and most realistic study ... reported only a 58% detection rate, even in mainly symptomatic people.”

It concludes: “Whatever decision making process the UK Government used [in deciding to use these lateral flow tests on a mass scale], it ignored key evidence and dismissed expert international advice.”

In the Commons, Hancock continued: “If you test people who wouldn’t otherwise have been tested you find the cases, you get them to isolate, and you can break the chains of transmission.

“So I would just strongly urge her [Whitford] to go back, to study the details, and to back the testing program that we have in this country.”

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Cherry said that Hancock’s answer was “not a good look”, as it amounted to “mansplaining different types of Covid-19 testing to a consultant surgeon”.

Whitford took to Twitter to write: “Yet another rude and patronising response from @MattHancock! As a doctor for 38 years, of course I'm not against 'testing' but tests which miss over half of Covid-19 cases create dangerous false reassurance!”

Sharing a post from another user which said that “just aiming for high testing numbers ... will not tackle the virus and will not improve the health of the country”, Whitford added: “Absolutely, I’m not the only doctor this Government refuses to listen to!”

In May, Hancock came under fire for telling Labour’s Dr Rosena Allin-Khan to watch her “tone” after she asked about Covid testing.

Referencing Hancock’s past comment, Whitford asked: “Was it maybe my ‘tone’? Or does he have a fear of women doctors?”