Christopher Snowdon, IEA Head of Lifestyle Economics, has written for the New Statesman on the the government’s announcement that it will scrap free testing for coronavirus.

The decision comes as we are entering what seems to be the final stage of the pandemic, and Christopher argues that continuing to spend large sums on Covid tests would be a waste of taxpayers’ money.

“We have been testing at twice the rate of Italy and four times the rates of Germany and South Korea. Part of the reason for this is that testing in the UK has always been “free” (ie paid for through taxation). The question now is whether we should continue spending more money on mass testing for a defanged virus than we do on primary care.”

Read the full article here.