Thread by @Kit_Yates_Maths

We are in the midst of yet another wave of Covid. More than one in 30 people across the UK are infected and hospital admission with Covid are up 30 percent week on week. Covid deaths too have started to rise. But this resurgence is hardly being mentioned.

Why is that?
1/9

Certainly, the widespread deployment of vaccines has made a huge difference to the numbers of people dying and becoming critically ill from covid. For many people infection is not as serious as it once was.
But this isn't the whole story.
2/9

The primary reason covid is off the agenda is because it is wildly inconvenient to acknowledge the impact it is having.
3/9

Hospitals, already struggling after two years of covid and chronic underfunding, are coming under renewed pressure. We are currently seeing almost 1500 covid admissions per day to English hospitals.
4/9

Increasing numbers of people are being forced to take time off work, or worse being pressured into going to work and potentially infecting their colleagues. This is not to mention the looming crisis caused by long covid.
5/9

The latest figures suggest over 2 million people in the UK are suffering, with more than 800,000 reporting symptoms lasting longer than a year.
6/9

The government’s strategy for dealing with covid seems to be based around encouraging people to take “personal responsibility”. The problem with this strategy is two-fold...
7/9

Firstly, people’s risk of catching covid is not largely in their own hands.

Secondly, we are not being provided with the tools which would allow us to reduce the risk to ourselves and others.
8/9

Sadly, while we fail to take measures to mitigate against the spread of covid, more people will become infected, which will lead to more hospitalisations and sadly, but inevitably, to more deaths. Covid isn’t over, and pretending it is won’t help matters.
9/9

Adapted from my express opinion piece near the bottom of this page:
express.co.uk/life-style/hea…