I now know the cause of the huff it is this statement:
“I am afraid this is a rather strange statement, so the health service decided to believe the rumours that there was an extraordinary pandemic, and admitted patients that did not need treatment, thereby overwhelming the service? You obviously have never been near a hospital in your life. ”
I do apologise, there is a note of sarcasm but this was triggered by your statement :
“Our health services have prioritised a routine problem – vulnerable people catching flu – and thrown far more resources than they would do normally at every case. That is why the services are overwhelmed.”
And this is the root of the problem, denial that this is not an extraordinary infection, but a routine -vulnerable people catching flu. This is not just plain wrong, it is insensitive, and I am sorry if this upsets you. The meaning of what you say here is that if elderly and vulnerable people get serious complications of Flu (even though this is also a mistaken belief, because they have covid-19 and not just flu) then they should not be admitted to hospital and resources wasted on them. Please look again at what you said and convince me that that is not really what you meant.
The reason why this is important for me and also it seems for Clark, to debunk such talk is that frankly it is extremely harmful in many ways. It underplays a major crisis by trying to belittle the risks and undermining all the efforts of medical people and scientists as being in cahoots with governments to hoodwink us. It also means that genuine criticisms that should be directed at governments for inaction and slow inadequate responses are deflected. It discredits individuals who may have genuine concerns about the economic consequences and you voice will be lost.