Steph
I am glad you are engaging again. I am also glad you posted the links from 2018 and 2019. The NHS ‘winter pressure’ bed shortages have been a chronic feature of the NHS ever since Thatcher started to reduce the number of beds available in the NHS. The number of beds in the NHS have halved since 1986 despite increase in number of patients treated. If you have worked in the NHS or know someone who has then you will know that this is the case. Respiratory diseases are the commonest cause of admissions and those admitted are elderly and have co-morbidities. One of the worst culprits is ‘flu and that is why there is a drive to vaccinate the elderly yearly as the virus does mutate and we need a new vaccine each year. In some years the vaccine does not protect fully or the strain of virus is more lethal and many more patients are admitted and also many more die. NHS hospitals generally have contingency plans to deal with this over the winter months for several weeks. I hope you will acknowledge that this scenario occurred earlier on this year in the UK, when the number of hospital admissions were so increased and number of deaths also increased to an alarming level, and this rise occurred in April and May, usually months when the NHS is recovering from the winter pressures. What was apparent was that SARS Cov2 was much more contagious and lethal than the flu’ virus and came also after the usual deaths from the winter flu and other infections. Because SARS Cov2 is not as seasonal as the ‘flu, if unchecked we would have had a year round crisis in the NHS and continuous higher level of deaths of elderly and vulnerable individuals. This means there is reduced capacity to treat other conditions as the urgent cases with covid-19 will be admitted and there will be no beds to treat other conditions.
I am sorry if what I wrote is basic but that seems to be the problem when people feel that this virus is not serious, that the implications of this swamping of the NHS is really not taken into consideration. You may not know of individuals who have died or suffered with the virus but know of many who have suffered the effects of the lockdown and the simple explanation is that so far under 1 or 2 percent of the population have had a severe form of the disease whereas a hundred percent of the population has suffered the effects of the lockdown.
We can argue as to whether the lockdown is appropriate or has been carried out appropriately but that is another discussion.