Thread by @DrSimonAshworth

I am a senior doctor in Critical Care in one of the UK’s largest Trusts, so unhappily I have gained expertise in COVID, and humbly I say that there is much more pressure on hospitals, especially their ICUs

https://twitter.com/Ferretgrove/status/1330484232880320513

ICU/Critical Care is one of those specialities which is a fulcrum on which most hospitals depend

People who need major surgery often require ICU care as do those who suffer complications of cancer treatment, heart disease, trauma, infections, etc

The UK has a baseline of around 3500 staffed ICU beds, far below countries like Germany, Italy, and the US

They barely meet our needs at the best of times…

So if ICU is full of people with COVID, we can’t treat people with cancer when complications arise, or who have had major surgery… there is no point doing operations unless you can get through the aftermath

And while ICU capacity is partly about “beds”, physical facilities, and equipment, more than anything it’s about skilled staff

And we don’t have enough

Brexit, and the war on “Freedom of movement”, has made the situation much worse because it has dramatically reduced the number of EU citizens with professional skills we need who will work in Britain… it’s just a fact

We are trying to maintain services to prevent the govt estimated 185,000 deaths that may occur due to non-COVID disease if hospitals are overwhelmed by COVID, and we are trying to prevent deaths directly due to COVID

But the reckless pronouncements of people like Tice, Trump, “COVID hoaxers”, anti-vaxers, and other cranks are doing much harm, because they are decreasing compliance with lockdown, and undermining public understanding of COVID

Definitively Tice is wrong and his opinion is worth less than nothing on COVID

So by giving people like Tice a platform on this issue, @LBC and other “news” organisations have blood on their hands…

The only thing Tice should be saying to anyone is sorry

And @LBC should stop platforming these dangerous charlatans who are all about glib opinions which are contrary to the facts

Our government for all its flaws has procured 90 million doses of vaccine which will get us out of the COVID trap

And these vaccines work, which is brilliant news

To have active treatments, and vaccines proven to be safe and effective is an achievement that surpasses the Manhattan project, and yet all these charlatans do is deny and denigrate

And let’s put this in perspective

The Black Death killed over 100 million over 320 years, and worldwide we may get away with ~2m deaths world wide from COVID over a couple of years…

For many people the lockdown is economically devastating, and it’s completely right that they are supported, but let’s reflect on how the US spent on “the war on terror” to avenge 3000 deaths?

$6.4 trillion

We will recover from COVID, and we will suppress it… but let’s not squander more lives and cause more grief than necessary before we reach this point

And as a society I hope we will learn again to value each other more, and again to value objective facts and integrity, and to stop amplifying vacuous opinions…