Identification and isolation of the SARS-COV-2 virus
Dear Department of Health and Social Care,
Please provide a full, accurate and complete list of records held within your office, and or under your authority, describing the isolation of a SARS-COV-2 virus, directly taken from a symptomatic patient of COVID-19 where the sample was not first combined with any other source of genetic material (not limited but by way of example monkey kidney cells, aka vero cells, liver cancer cells) thereby eliminating contamination as a possible alternative source of sampling.
Please note isolation is used in the normally understood meaning of the word – the act of separating a thing from another. I am not referring, and hence not requesting, to isolation meaning the culture of something else, the performance of an amplification test (eg PCR test which only detect mRNA or DNA) or the sequencing of “something”.
Yours faithfully,
Mrs Alison Rafferty
Our ref: DE-1276283
Dear Mrs Rafferty,
Thank you for your correspondence of 25 November about Departmental
records pertaining to the SARS-CoV-2 virus. I have been asked to reply.
The Freedom of Information Act only applies to recorded information such
as paper or electronic archive material. As your correspondence asked for
information about supposed records rather than requesting any specific
recorded information or documentation itself, it did not fall under the
provisions of the Act. You may find it helpful to refer to the Information
Commissioner’s ‘How to access information from a public body’ webpage. It
includes advice for requesters on how to communicate effectively with
public authorities, and how to word requests to get the best result.
Future requests are less likely to be refused if framed in accordance with
these guidelines.
[1]https://ico.org.uk/your-data-matters/off...
I am sorry I cannot be more directly helpful.
Yours sincerely,
Adam Salt
Ministerial Correspondence and Public Enquiries
Department of Health and Social Care
Dear Mrs Rafferty,
Thank you for your email.
The Freedom of Information Act only applies to recorded information such as paper or electronic archive material. As your correspondence asked for general information and a "complete list of records" rather than requesting specific documentation, it did not fall under the provisions of the Act. It will be answered as general correspondence in due course.
Yours sincerely,
FOI Team
Department of Health and Social Care
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