It makes me very concerned to read the number of 'healthcare workers' on here (because obviously anyone on the internet can say they're whoever they like) - saying that they have no sympathy/compassion etc for unvaccinated patients.
Look, most people in this country have self inflicted illness. The biggest cost to the NHS is Type 2 Diabetes, which costs billions every year. What causes type 2 diabetes? Obesity. What causes obesity? People eating too much and not exercising enough. It has devastating effects on the body. Interestingly enough, it is also one of the most significant risk factors for severe covid complications.
The second biggest cost to the NHS is heart disease. What causes heart disease? As above - obesity and smoking.
What's the biggest cancer killer? Lung cancer. What causes lung cancer? Smoking.
The NHS is 'on its knees' (good lord how I hate this phrase) and has been for decades because we are an ageing, unhealthy population. We live stressful lives in a society fuelled by capitalism, where living costs outstrip wages, the cheapest food is the unhealthiest, and access to safe outdoor spaces to exercise for many people is limited. Successive governments have stripped funding for early years support for families in need, for apprentices and training schemes, for council and lower income housing schemes, and so on and so forth. This has all led to increased housing insecurity, increased job insecurity, increased poverty and increased poor health.
Add to this the lack of investment in the NHS, the lack of investment in the training of nurses and doctors, and the choice to sever our country from the EU, decimating our supply of overseas trained health professionals, and we're in a situation where we have an unhealthy population with not enough health provision to care for them.
There is a huge element of personal responsibility when it comes to health, but there is also a huge element of governmental and societal responsibility in creating the right environmental, social and economic conditions for people to be able to make the best decisions for themselves.
The government wants us to start pointing fingers at one another. It's all about divide and conquer. The more we blame one another, the less we look to them.
Don't buy into this narrative. Everyone has the right to choose what is put into their bodies. I am vaccinated but I will fight without ceasing for people's right to not have the vaccine if - for whatever reason - they don't feel safe having it injected into their bodies. We are not a fascist society. I don't want to live in a country where people are forced to have medical treatment they don't want. If that means they block an ICU bed, then so be it. Most other people in ICU will also be in there for self inflicted reasons. The minute we start placing a hierarchy of need based on who has the moral 'right' to treatment over someone else - and let's remember that every person's definition of that 'right' will be based on their own set of biases and assumptions - this can never be an objective process - we're going down a very slippery slope as a society indeed.
Let's not forget - we're not in this position because of any decision any individual sitting in a hospital bed has made. We're here because successive governments over successive years have placed their own ambition over the needs of the people they supposedly serve. It is these people who need to be held to account, not the people suffering in hospital, for whom I will always have compassion, because they are humans who are suffering. It disturbs me that so many of us - including people supposedly treating these people in their hour of need - seem to have forgotten that.