A leading scientist at Harvard University has said he is "surprised" by the Irish Government's attitude towards the public after he made an appearance on Prime Time.
Michael Mina is the Assistant Professor of Epidemiology at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health with over 80 published papers.
He appeared on the RTE hit show last night to give his opinion on an issue which is splitting the Irish public over the last few days - whether antigen tests, like the ones sold in Lidl, are effective.
Three days ago, Mina hit out at NPHET member Professor Philip Nolan for his 'snake oil' comments about the tests.
Last night, Prime Time went to Bray, Co Wicklow to gauge public opinion about the testing kits.
"Once you read the instructions properly, you can see it's fairly straight forward and you get your instant reading," one woman told the reporters.
"I think the majority of people will be sensible about it and use them correctly."
Mina was joined by Dublin GP Ray Walley to debate the issue with host Sarah McInerney.
He brought forward data to counter Dr Walley's points - but was left less than impressed.
After the show aired, he tweeted:
"Just on @RTE_PrimeTime about rapid tests.
"Surprised at lack of trust the government has in the Irish people.
"Instead of supporting access to simple at-home tests to tell if you are infectious, the position appears to be to limit access because they don't trust people to handle a negative test."
He then claimed that the Government's policy "doesn't make sense"
"We do not defeat a pandemic without properly engaging & trusting in the public To actively advocate against an asymptomatic person to be able to access a rapid test that has a very high sensitivity to tell you if you are spreading the virus doesn't make sense.
"Similarly to actively want to force symptomatic people to NOT have access to at-home tests because you want to ensure they get a much less accessible PCR test isn't good policy.
"Do we want symptomatic people leaving home to get PCR tests?? A rapid test is accessible and fast!
"Overall though, there seems to be confusion among decision makers in Ireland that these tests are not sensitive Rapid tests do a very good job at detecting you **when you are infectious** - which is what matters if you are using a rapid test. Why is this still a question?"
