Fear of the pandemic is increasing significantly in the UK. Prime Minister Boris Johnson may have made the situation worse with his lurching course. The clinics are already overloaded anyway.
London (AP) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson compares the major corona threat to an enemy on the battlefield. "We are involved in a war against this disease that we have to win," Johnson said in the cabinet.
However, he fights with rather blunt weapons. According to many experts, he made a big mistake in his strategy to ward off the corona virus right at the beginning. In addition, the state health service NHS has been completely overloaded and ailing for years. Can you win a war against an invisible enemy this way?
In the UK there is a shortage of acute beds and, above all, respirators that could save the lives of many Covid 19 lung patients. In his emergency - just a few days ago - Johnson even asked car manufacturers if they could not also build such devices. The NHS currently has only 4,000 devices for adults and 900 for children. According to a BBC report, the NHS needs another 20,000 such ventilators in the worst scenario.
Doctors and nursing staff are also missing; the uncertainties in Brexit times have driven many of them out of the country. The NHS, which was mainly financed with tax funds, was saved. Getting an appointment with a family doctor takes a lot of patience. Operations have to be postponed again and again due to staff shortages. And in winter, when the flu is added, the NHS is regularly on the verge of collapse. Even police vehicles had to bring patients to clinics because there was also no ambulance. Health care was therefore a key issue at Brexit and in the December elections.
"I don't trust the NHS at all, they have been totally underfunded for more than ten years," said Felix Simon, who packed his things in the face of the corona crisis and now lives in the Frankfurt area as a precaution for two weeks in self-isolation. Then he wants to be close to his parents and grandparents. His uncle is a medical doctor in Munich and has already treated patients with the novel corona virus. "He urged me to leave the UK," said Simon, who has lived in England since 2016 and is a PhD student at the renowned Oxford University. Almost all of his friends had left Great Britain.
According to official estimates, tens of thousands of people in the UK have already contracted the pathogen. The government now reports on the situation at a press conference every day. After his initial statements, critics accused Johnson of reacting too quickly to the pandemic and not following the recommendations of the World Health Organization. Various forecasts predicted around 200,000 to 500,000 deaths in the country. The government wanted to take small steps to prevent the outbreak from being suppressed too strongly and to come back with full force in autumn.
Finally, Johnson's team made a U-turn and increased the protective measures - in the meantime, practically all social contacts are discouraged and home office is recommended. Stop drinking beer in the pub and let the family, including grandma and grandpa, forego the Sunday roast in the restaurant. Cultural institutions were closed. Anyone who belongs to a risk group because of their old age or previous illnesses must go into three-month self-isolation. All schools in the country will close on Friday. A curfew is expected soon in the metropolis of London.
The goal now is to "keep the death toll below 20,000," said Patrick Vallance, a medical doctor who advises the government. "That would be a good result." Still, of course, that was still terrible. Critics fear, however, that Johnson's rocking course could have cost valuable time fighting the virus.