Via The Guardian: Doctors warn of second coronavirus wave as UK lockdown weakens. Excerpt:
Senior doctors fear that growing non-compliance with the lockdown risks triggering a second wave of Covid-19 infections.
They also believe that Boris Johnson’s decision to start urging people to “stay alert” rather than “stay home” will confuse the public and make it even harder to enforce the restrictions on movement designed to save lives and protect the NHS.
Intensive care doctors are warning that “irresponsible” behaviour, such as people ignoring the rules to stay two metres apart during Friday’s VE Day anniversary celebrations, could lead to the numbers of people needing to be taken to hospital with the disease going up again.
Dr David Hepburn, an intensive consultant in Wales, tweeted: “Just watched the conga lines/street parties on the news. The nation has lost its fucking mind. We’re strapping in for the second wave.
“I’m so, so tired, and so pissed off. We’ve had a few days of respite and I was starting to feel hopeful. Can’t believe I was so naïve.”
Dr Ami Jones, another ICU specialist, tweeted a link to a table showing that the UK has the highest death rate in the world from Covid-19, even higher than the US.
She said: “Showing our supremacy in the world stats as we irresponsibly flout lockdown to celebrate VE Day in the worst fashion. Glad I’ve had a couple of weeks away from ITU to recuperate as the next wave is going to make this horrific statistic even worse. Things are about to get busy.”
Challenged about the accuracy of the graph, Jones replied: “I think it’s useful to show that we are nowhere near beating this, yet people are behaving like all of the risk is gone and life can go back to normal. Couldn’t be further from normal.”
Dr Mark Forrest, an intensive care doctor in the north-west of England, said he was “seriously worried” that ignoring the lockdown would increase the pressure on units like his.
He tweeted: “Our ICU already has more Covid cases than 2 weeks ago as more people go out. Ignoring lockdown has us seriously worried for the next few weeks.”
