The Irish Small and Medium Enterprise Association (ISME) has written to the Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly, expressing concern over the remarks by some NPHET members about antigen tests.
It said that the 'attacks' on antigen testing, made to the media and on social media are not grounded in science and "evidently reflect only the personal opinions of individual members of NPHET."
ISME chief executive, Neil McDonnell has taken issue with comments by the Chief Medical Officer, Dr Tony Holohon at a media briefing last Friday and comments by Professor Philip Nolan on social media on 8 May.
He said Dr Holohan had commented on antigen tests being sold by a supermarket and had remarked that the tests could lead to inappropriate reassurance in a situation where a person could "go into a supermarket and buy, for example, a pound of sausages and charcoal for a barbecue and an antigen test and think, great."
He also cited Prof Nolan's comments on tests being sold in a supermaket: "Can I get some snake oil with that?...These antigen tests will not keep you safe."
ISME also said that the dissenting opinions to the Report of the Covid-19 Rapid Testing Group, published on 1 April, also came from doctors in the HSE and NPHET.
"It is noteworthy to ISME that these two individuals do not in our opinion appear to have the level of technical expertise enjoyed by their other colleagues in the group," it added.
ISME said that the expert group concluded that rapid antigen testing should be considered in community settings, such as nursing homes and other long term care facilities, schools, universities, sports clubs, small and large private and public office workplaces, food processing plants, manufacturing facilities, prisons and shelters.
It said that to date, NPHET had continued to reiterate only the well-known relative shortcomings of antigen testing, rather than the scientifically established advantages of widespread testing.
ISME said it was not unreasonable to expect that when members of NPHET attempt to criticise or undermine the use of rapid antigen testing in appropriate settings, they would be capable of doing so citing scientifically informed opinion.
