Bring Covid curbs back AGAIN, say top medical journals: Editorial calls for new clampdown on Britons that could include 'restrictions on gatherings' and mask mandates | Mail Online - Stephen Matthews:
July 18, 2022 - "Economically-crippling Covid restrictions need to be brought back immediately to save the 'dying' NHS, ministers have been told.... [I]n a scathing editorial demanding action today, the editors of the British Medical Journal (BMJ) and the Health Service Journal (HSJ) — two of the country's leading health publications — accused Boris Johnson's Government of 'gaslighting the public' about Covid's threat. Dr Kamran Abbasi (BMJ) and Alastair McLellan (HSJ) said: 'Now is the time to face the fact that the nation's attempt to "live with Covid" is the straw that is breaking the NHS's back. 'The heart of the problem is the failure to recognise that the pandemic is far from over and that a return to some of the measures taken in the past two years is needed.'
"Examples of curbs needed included a return to wearing masks in healthcare settings and on public transport, the reintroduction of the £2billion-a-month free testing scheme, WFH [working from home] where possible and 'restrictions on some types and sizes of gathering'. They didn't set out what gatherings should be curbed. But previous limits enforced in England saw just six people allowed to meet indoors, weddings limited to a handful of guests and festivals cancelled....
"Britain's Covid cases soared by 800,000 last week with more than one in 20 people infected on any given day — prompting people to cancel plans, stay home and wear masks again. The Office for National Statistics' (ONS) weekly infection survey estimated 3.5million Britons were carrying the virus in the week ending July 6 as cases roses nationally by around a third. Sarah Crofts, chief analyst at the ONS, said infections 'are showing no signs of decreasing' and suggested they could reach pandemic highs this summer — which could throw public services into further chaos. Covid sickness is already wreaking havoc on the NHS, rail operators and airlines, echoing the Christmas wave when there were mass rail cancellations, axed operations, school closures and overflowing rubbish bins.
"While the Government has promised not to reimpose restrictions unless the Covid surge turns deadly, Britons already appear to be tempering their behaviours in response to the rising statistics. An exclusive poll for MailOnline today found three in 10 people have stayed at home to avoid Covid in the last month and 42 per cent have worn a face mask. Almost half observed social distancing rules that have not been in place since February, while two-thirds said they had sanitised their hands. Just 16 per cent of people, around one in six, have not taken any precautions over the last month, according to the survey of 1,500 Britons by Redfield & Wilton Strategies....
"Daily Covid hospital admissions have risen to a near 18-month high, with around 2,000 people currently being hospitalised every day. Yet only a third of 'patients' needing care primarily ill with the virus itself. The rest have incidentally tested positive, NHS figures show. Deaths and ICU rates have remained flat despite the uptick in cases, with fatalities sitting at roughly 30 a day. Top scientists say this is because the variants behind the current wave — BA.4 and BA.5 — are mild, and that sky-high immunity rates from vaccines and previous waves have blunted the virus's threat.
"One Government adviser, who didn't want to be named, insisted there is 'no need for Government measures' anymore. They argued draconian restrictions only worked when the public was scared by the disease itself, and now society isn't so 'worried about catching what's essentially a cross between a cold and flu'. 'The time of mandates and restrictions is finished and won't help,' the top scientist said. 'The last two waves went down without either.' Professor Paul Hunter, an infectious disease expert based at the University of East Anglia, said reintroducing curbs now 'is not going to actually achieve much' and would 'cause substantial disruption'....
"But the BMJ and HSJ argue that high infection rates are increasing the number of Covid and long Covid patients it has to care for. It is also pushing up staff absences and crippling its ability to tackle the backlog of routine care the spiralled during the pandemic, the authors said.... Similar warnings from Independent Sage, a panel of experts who pushed for a Chinese-style elimination strategy, called for restrictions when cases were already falling.
"During Omicron's winter resurgence, infections fell. Only rules requiring masks to be worn in indoor venues were brought back in — but they were quickly dropped when it was clear the virus was in retreat. Ministers refused to bring any curbs back during April, when cases soared to pandemic highs."
Read editorial: https://www.bmj.com/content/378/bmj.o1779
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