The number of people infected with coronavirus doubles every nine days in the UK. If on September 1 59 patients were connected to the ventilator, on October 28 there were already 788. And this was not inevitable, writes The Guardian.
For the whole summer, experts urged the government to take urgent measures to reduce risks, because a new wave of the pandemic was obvious. A July report from the Academy of Medical Sciences said hospital admissions and deaths would peak in January and February 2021. Scientists stressed that such a scenario was inevitable, but it was necessary to prepare for it. The authorities ignored the scientists.
Already in September, the Emergency Scientific Advisory Committee presented the government with a concrete action plan, including the closure of catering, gyms, hairdressing salons and other institutions, and, if possible, move university and college education online. As noted by The Guardian, these recommendations were also rejected by the government. But in Britain they introduced an intricate system of local blocking, which, judging by the spread of the disease, did not work.
“Much has been written about the economic devastation caused by isolation restrictions. But it’s important to remember that health and wealth are closely related. Unemployment and poverty have serious health consequences. Dead people are economically unproductive, and seriously ill people consume resources without being able to participate in economic activities. Economics and health are not isolated from each other”, – says Dr. Charlotte Summers, professor of intensive care at the University of Cambridge.
In the spring, the United Kingdom already faced the dire consequences of postponing the imminent national quarantine. The country was among the worst affected by the pandemic, but now the authorities are again dragging out time until the coronavirus engulfs Britain.