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Original poster

If this doesn’t make you think twice about breaking COVID rules....

281 replies

Strawberrycreamsundae · 31/12/2020 11:35

Then nothing will......🤬😡
bbc.co.uk/news/uk-55479018

OP posts:
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5
upsidedownwavylegs · 31/12/2020 12:10

What a horrible man.

MintyMabel · 31/12/2020 12:15

It’s a bad situation, but “I’m seeing whole families wiped out” seems a bit like rhetoric to me. Is that really happening all over the place?

Ginkpin · 31/12/2020 12:16

I don't think I believe the claim that 'most' people in hospital are younger than him or around his age (58). I do believe that it is spreading faster amongst younger people now, but he implies that those people who had previously been considered 'less at risk' (under 65 no underlying health conditions) are now not just contracting it more but becoming critical.

Yes if more people in that age group are catching it now, then there will be a few more who require hospitalisation, but he is challenging the whole notion of who is most vulnerable in terms of severity and that is very scare-mongery. I haven't heard anyone else say that yet

Fizbosshoes · 31/12/2020 12:18

I fear for people working in hospitals and thestress and overwhelm they must be continually experiencing but I'm not sure its as simple as washing hands and wearing masks will stop the spread.

I think that there is a collective responsibility to try and limit contact as much as possible but I thought the new variant was supposed to be 50-70% more transmissable, and by its nature will infect people more easily.

HugeAckmansWife · 31/12/2020 12:22

Furlough was set up so businesses could still pay their staff while they are forced to close. Nothing to do with childcare.

Againstmachine · 31/12/2020 12:22

Absolute scaremongering, did he say, we are killing our grannies too.

All that he has me think is what a knob.

Fizbosshoes · 31/12/2020 12:22

Having said that I think people who are not abiding by the rules will just choose not to listen to, or read stuff like this and continue to bend the rules.
Part of my family have been going round to each others houses as normal, right from the start. They have been in tier 4 since before xmas, and still mixed households on Boxing day and wouldn't be surprised if they saw each (or other friends) other tonight.

SquirmOfEels · 31/12/2020 12:24

I've seen quite a few first-hand reports saying that ICUs have many younger patients, so he's probably not wrong about his patient mix

stoneysongs · 31/12/2020 12:24

Well, here we have a professor of medicine, specialist in intensive care, telling us what the situation is like at his hospital in London to try and get people to understand the consequences of breaking the rules.

MN response: "seems a bit like rhetoric to me" / "I don't think I believe the claim" / "scaremongering" / "hyperbolic"

Amazing - who would you lot believe?

Okeydokeypiginapokey · 31/12/2020 12:25

Over the top!

PerhapsOverlyWorried · 31/12/2020 12:25

So those that are disabled and unable to wear masks have blood on their hands, really? That’s an extremely responsible thing for a doctor to say.

Orchidflower1 · 31/12/2020 12:25

The issue is though that some people who could wear masks don’t. Some people have the lanyards and don’t genuinely need them. These are doubly sexist people because they cast doubt and bad feeling on those who genuinely can’t wear one.

Kokeshi123 · 31/12/2020 12:26

The average age of COVID mortality is a little over 80, so his suggestions that most hospitalizations are people under 58 and that whole families are getting wiped out are getting an eyeroll from me.

Yes, I wear a mask religiously and am not going anywhere for NYE.

PowerslidePanda · 31/12/2020 12:27

@Ginkpin

I don't think I believe the claim that 'most' people in hospital are younger than him or around his age (58). I do believe that it is spreading faster amongst younger people now, but he implies that those people who had previously been considered 'less at risk' (under 65 no underlying health conditions) are now not just contracting it more but becoming critical.

Yes if more people in that age group are catching it now, then there will be a few more who require hospitalisation, but he is challenging the whole notion of who is most vulnerable in terms of severity and that is very scare-mongery. I haven't heard anyone else say that yet

Instead of dismissing him based on pure speculation, how about looking up some actual data?

The latest ICNARC report shows that the average age of critically ill COVID patients is 60.7 - pretty close to his guess.

And 20% of critically ill COVID patients since 1 September are/were aged 16-49.

www.icnarc.org/DataServices/Attachments/Download/4ac72922-f345-eb11-912d-00505601089b

BungleandGeorge · 31/12/2020 12:31

We obviously have numbers for numbers of infections by age group, do we have the same for hospital admissions?
Whether people are badly affected doesn’t seem to be totally random, I presume that people with more similar genetics may have more similar responses to covid than random individuals.

satnighttakeaway · 31/12/2020 12:32

@Pringlespop

DownWhichOfLate

@LST - is furlough still an option? It just seems madness to keep schools open whilst also having articles such as this.

I think it’s your works discretion. I have no childcare from the 4th to the 18th January. I asked my work to be furloughed but they said no. It’s out of my hands, schools shut. I’m not a keyworker so I don’t get a place in the school hub. I’ll need to take it off unpaid. But I thought that’s why furlough was set up? To help those in need that have childcare issues?

Absolutely not what furlough was set up for at all but it has since become a reason for which an employee can be furloughed but no obligation for an employer to agree to a request.
IloveJKRowling · 31/12/2020 12:35

Even if you think his comments are ill-judged, surely that shows how much our medics are on their knees?

What about some compassion for those at the front line?

stoneysongs · 31/12/2020 12:36

Those who don't believe what he says, do you think he's mistaken (and that you know better than him the situation at the hospital where he works and you don't)? Or do you think he's lying?

LangClegsInSpace · 31/12/2020 12:36

@HugeAckmansWife

Furlough was set up so businesses could still pay their staff while they are forced to close. Nothing to do with childcare.
You employee is eligible for the grant and can be furloughed, if they are:

- unable to work because they have caring responsibilities resulting from coronavirus (COVID-19), including employees that need to look after children

www.gov.uk/guidance/check-which-employees-you-can-put-on-furlough-to-use-the-coronavirus-job-retention-scheme#if-your-employees-health-has-been-affected-by-coronavirus-covid-19-or-any-other-conditions

MrsMomoa · 31/12/2020 12:37

singingstones

Well, here we have a professor of medicine, specialist in intensive care, telling us what the situation is like at his hospital in London to try and get people to understand the consequences of breaking the rules.

MN response: "seems a bit like rhetoric to me" / "I don't think I believe the claim" / "scaremongering" / "hyperbolic"

Amazing - who would you lot believe?

I do believe what he's saying about hospitals being full, but I do not believe that those not wearing masks have blood on their hands!
He's pointing his anger at the wrong people!

borntohula · 31/12/2020 12:39

So what's the story with the 'mutant' strain, is it massively more transmissible or hardly at all?

Bagelsandbrie · 31/12/2020 12:40

I’m not sure why people are so shocked at the idea that ICUs are full of younger people. Yes many elderly people will die of Covid but generally speaking they decline very quickly and will already be suffering from other serious conditions. They will probably die before they even reach ICU. Younger people - 40s and 50s and so on - are the ones who are needing the oxygen and the ventilators longer term. This is why ICU is filling up. It’s not a case of one bed becoming free and another person needing it. The beds aren’t being freed up at the rate of need.

LangClegsInSpace · 31/12/2020 12:43

@borntohula

So what's the story with the 'mutant' strain, is it massively more transmissible or hardly at all?
Looks massively more transmissible to me.
If this doesn’t make you think twice about breaking COVID rules....
If this doesn’t make you think twice about breaking COVID rules....
JacobReesMogadishu · 31/12/2020 12:43

Prof Montgomery, who was on shift as he gave the interview to 5 Live, said it was "a great myth" that hospitals are being overwhelmed with elderly people.
"The people we are getting are, like the first wave, my age really. I am 58 and I would say half the patients are younger than me. It is middle-aged people or a little bit older that we are getting."

I think that’s important for people to realise.....that it isn’t just old people (and I totally get that old people are important too). Maybe the older you are the more chance you have of dying but the 2 men I know who died one was in his 50s and one in his 60s. I know a number of people with long covid in their 40s, really disabled by ongoing symptoms. Too many people aren’t bothered about their own risk as they think they’ll be ok. They need to wake up.

ghoulbag · 31/12/2020 12:47

@singingstones

Those who don't believe what he says, do you think he's mistaken (and that you know better than him the situation at the hospital where he works and you don't)? Or do you think he's lying?
The bits I don’t believe in and object to in the strongest possible terms are the value judgements, but yes, I do think he’s lying or mistaken about how transmissible the new strain is. If he isn’t lying or mistaken, then other medical professionals are. That aside though - “I’m angry that people are blaming the virus, it is not the virus”? People have “blood on their hands”? That’s not a concerned doctor trying to productively communicate information on a public health concern, that’s your common or garden miserable busybody dickhead.