Thread by @dgurdasani1

I honestly cannot believe that we're living in a country where our govt is acting against scientific advice once again, and delaying action on rapid exponential growth, fully aware of the consequences- for the fourth time- a stance normalised by a complicit media.🧵

With a rapidly growing new variant doubling every 2 days, increasing hospitalisations already in London, which is ahead in terms of spread. The lags between infection and hospitalisation haven't happened yet, so this situation will only get worse.

We're seeing the highest hospitalisation rates with COVID-19 we've ever seen in 0-5 year olds, and rising.

https://twitter.com/Antonio_Caramia/status/1472978624399687686?s=20

Our govt has been warned repeatedly by their own scientific advisors that the NHS could be badly overwhelmed - even in the best case scenario. They've been warned that early action is needed by SAGE, by SPI-M-O. And they've chosen to ignore this once again.

And what has a lot of MSM done? Rather than challenge them robustly on this, they've chosen to question the modelling and the science. They've chosen to present false dichotomies between healthcare for other conditions, and COVID-19.

They've repeatedly platformed scientists behind the GBD - who have been pushing 'herd immunity' rhetoric for over a year and have been dangerously wrong about everything. Importantly, they haven't communicated the seriousness of the crisis we are in, and what inaction will mean.

Disinformation groups like HART and UsForThem are deeply entrenched within govt, and have access and influence, with ministers quoting 'herd immunity through infection' GBD proponents to justify inaction at this critical time, against their own advisors.

https://twitter.com/Kit_Yates_Maths/status/1473192394698940421?s=20

And scientists who have consistently put out misinformation are still continuing to minimise the impact of omicron through 'good news' hopium without evidence - also in effect normalising govt inaction.

I know the massive impact on the NHS isn't necessarily being felt now- but, by the time the impact is felt & we act, we'll be several doublings in, which means substantially higher hospitalisations will already be baked in - because so many more people will have been infected.

And we started from a place where ambulances in England were on black alert, and waiting times for A&E and ambulances were dangerously high. What happens when this already overwhelmed system comes under more pressure?

And it's not slightly more pressure. In the best case scenario SAGE models show 2-3x the number of daily COVID-19 hospitalisations we have now. Our system simply can't cope with this. It may mean people not able to access life-saving emergency care. We're already partly there.

When health systems break down, there's no explosive marker for this. Staff and systems stretch and stretch, and what happens is that people who need care just aren't able to get it in time. Or people need to be discharged earlier even if they're not fully recovered to make space

Ultimately, it results in more death, more disability (e.g. stroke/heart attacks where treatment wasn't in a given window) not just at that point in time but often even in the future for chronic illnesses where people weren't able to get timely treatment. And trauma among staff.

Here's a poignant piece by @ShaunLintern that illustrates this:

https://twitter.com/ShaunLintern/status/1413055709319729155?s=20

Waiting in the face of exponential growth is accepting mass suffering, devastation of health systems, and death. This is what our govt is doing, and a lot of MSM is normalising while talking about christmas parties. Have they informed the public about this stark reality?

When the media questions the science rather than a murderous govt policy in the midst of a crisis that will severely impact thousands & cause loss of life - you know our country is in a very dangerous place.

Over the past year we've seen the value of life drop ('acceptable deaths') especially for the disabled & vulnerable. We've seen blatant corruption & attempts to evade accountability, power grabbing by govt to avoid scrutiny, erosion of human rights and independent media.

We know where this path leads. And I feel powerless as do many others to do anything about it. And those who can, just won't.

Not sure why the rest of my thread isn't appearing here in continuation, but have linked it below:

https://twitter.com/dgurdasani1/status/1473206143057285124?s=20