Belated change to isolation rules a symptom of flawed strategy: The Yorkshire Post says

Even with the important caveats that those in the difficult position of making life-and-death decisions for the country are facing an unprecedented challenge and that we are learning more about this virus with every passing day, the news that losses or changes in sense of taste or smell are only now being added to the NHS coronavirus symptoms list requiring self-isolation is cause for discomfort.

The change follows Professor Tim Spector, head of the department of genetic epidemiology and leader of the Covid symptom study app at King’s College London, warning 50,000 to 70,000 people in the UK with Covid-19 had not been told to self-isolate even though they had the virus.

He said infected people, including frontline carers, had been encouraged back to work due to a failure to track symptoms properly. Criticism on this point is not a matter of hindsight; there have been warnings for weeks from experts – including the World Health Organisation – about the loss of taste and smell being a symptom, with other nations listing it as among those their populations should isolate for.

Indeed, even Health Secretary Matt Hancock has confirmed he lost his sense of taste when he had coronavirus in March.

England’s deputy chief medical officer Professor Jonathan Van-Tam now says the addition of loss of taste and smell should pick up just an extra two per cent of cases – from 91 per cent to 93 per cent.

But with cases now thankfully declining from the peak of the virus, it is right there will be difficult questions about how much transmission could have been reduced – and lives saved – if this change had been implemented much earlier.

Editor’s note: first and foremost - and rarely have I written down these words with more sincerity - I hope this finds you well.

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James Mitchinson

Editor