The resulting requirement to abandon testing people in the community during the critical early period of the pandemic cost many lives for a number of reasons including because: a) many asymptomatic carriers were not tested and therefore identified and asked to isolate; b) many older people were admitted to care homes either from the community or hospitals in ignorance of their covid status or that of staff working in care homes; c) low levels of testing meant that the UK lost visibility of where the disease was spreading, among which groups and how quickly. For a crucial period our only insight into the spread of covid was by counting people so sick that they had to be admitted to hospital; and (Paragraph 234.c)) d) the receipt of a positive test result would have been likely to improve compliance with an isolation request.