Tony Holohan has slammed antigen testing at a crunch Dáil committee session.
Dr Holohan was scathing of the reliability of the internationally-recognised antigen tests describing them as “no more reliable than a coin toss.”
And he warned that nobody should use a negative result from such a test as “a green light” to go about their daily business.
He was scathing of their effectiveness too, describing claims as “hypothetical.”
The Chief Medical Officer (CMO) repeatedly clashed with the politicians of the committee who are mostly in favour of using antigen tests immediately to reopen air travel.
Dr Holohan, was part of a team of six top NPHET members that faced off against TDs over the issue in Leinster House.
His colleague, Dr Cillian de Gascun, was similarly dismissive of their usefulness, saying that “opinion and comment is being interpreted as evidence” of antigen tests’ effectiveness.
Dr Holohan talked about the possible return of holidays without any testing, PCR or antigens, sometime in “late summer” when vaccination rates are so high that tests aren’t needed.
He said: “our ambition is to see the return of travel without dependence on testing because incidence rates will be low and vaccination uptake is high, that’s where we want to be.”
However, these decisions are ones for the Irish and other Governments to make.
Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said today that decisions on travel rules for when the EU Digital Green Cert kicks-in, on July 19, will be made by the Cabinet jointly “at the end of this month.”
However, the politicians of the Oireachtas Transport Committee were unanimous in their support of the introduction of antigen testing in the battle against Covid straightaway - especially in the aviation sector.
One after another they came out in support of the test being more widely used.
Fianna Fáil TD for Clare, Cathal Crowe, said he believed antigen tests are: “cheap, fast, uncomplicated, and most importantly, a safe way to test people before travel.
Another Fianna Fáil politician from near Shannon Airport, Senator Timmy Dooley, asked: “why are other countries happy to use antigen for air travel but we’re not?”
17 EU States currently use antigen testing as part of their Covid testing regimes.
But it was the case of an irresistible force meets an immovable object in Dr Holohan and his NPHET allies as they are still vehemently against widespread use of antigens.
And they would not back down on their resistance to it being used to reopen aviation to give tourism a much-needed boost with the return of overseas visitors.
Mr Holohan said: “While there may be a potential utility to be realised from the use of rapid testing in controlled environments and this may further evolve over time, there is still much we need to learn about these tests and their actual – as opposed to hypothetical - benefits and limitations.”
