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I apologize in advance for this rant - let’s face it I’m no Rory O’Hanlon - but I think we need to get a few things clear. In the last 6 months we have gone from knowing virtually nothing about this virus to knowing quite a lot with lots more still to learn.
Anyone who thinks we are over the worst of this is deluded. We are coming into flu season with rapidly rising cases of Covid and a health system in crisis. Agree our response has been more extreme than rest of Europe but our health service at the best of times is on its knees.
It’s true that deaths have dramatically fallen -many reasons for this. We’re learning fast about treatment aswell as the disease. It’s true also that it’s mainly young people testing positive now but they will spread it to older and vulnerable people.
I know that we cannot stay locked down forever and that economic fractures are very important but we need to understand that this is not like the flu. Young healthy people do not die of flu. Front line HCWs do not die of flu.
THIS IS NOT THE FLU.
THIS IS NOT THE FLU.
If we loose control of this in winter our hospitals will be overwhelmed and it won’t matter what we’ve learned about treating Covid. Or any other conditions for that matter. Older and vulnerable people cannot be cooped up again. It’s not reasonable to ask them again.
We also need to stop bickering amongst ourselves. This is not about public vs private. Our health system has benefited from a great interaction tweet the two. Public system takes all comers and treats them on basis of clinical merit.
Private system has advantage of being a bit more flexible and able to maximize efficiency and drive innovation. We are partners! Here togother to advise and support government.
