Would the Government’s £100bn Covid testing ‘Moonshot’ be good value for money?

Let’s imagine this ambitious programme could be successfully delivered. Would it make economic sense, given the size of that estimated price tag? asks Ben Chu

£100bn would represent around £1 in every £10 that the government had planned to spend in the Budget earlier this year

At Wednesday’s press conference where he justified fresh restrictions on the number of people who can meet socially, Boris Johnson also spoke of a “Moonshot” plan to tackle the coronavirus with a mass programme of tests that would give 10 million people a day results in just a few minutes.

The idea is that people would not have to travel to testing centres and that the samples would not have to be processed in laboratories.

“Our plan, this Moonshot that I'm describing, will require a giant collaborative effort from government, from business, from public health professionals, scientists, logistic experts and many, many more,” said the Prime Minister.