Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to a recent research paper entitled Probiotic improves symptomatic and viral clearance in covid-19 outpatients: a randomized, quadruple-blinded, placebo-controlled trial, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the findings of that research that probiotics improve symptomatic and viral clearance in covid-19 outpatients.

No formal assessment has been made. However, the Therapeutics Taskforce is monitoring data from clinical trials taking place worldwide to identify safe and effective treatments for COVID-19. The Taskforce works closely with RAPID C-19, a multi-agency group from across the health system, to review and evaluate evidence on the effectiveness of promising COVID-19 treatments when clinical trial data becomes available.