All this for a handful of actual infections that are a tiny, tiny fraction of cases ...

News from the Times

Britain’s busiest hospital has only one nurse for every three Covid patients being treated in intensive care as the capital faces a tsunami of new cases, leaked correspondence shows.
The Royal London Hospital in east London has reached “disaster medicine mode” and is no longer able to provide adequate critical care, according to management.
In an email sent last night and seen by The Times, critical care staff were told: “We are now in disaster medicine mode. We are no longer providing high standard critical care, because we cannot.
“While this is far from ideal, it’s the way things are, and the way they have to be for now. Things are going to get harder before they get better.”
It comes as the hospital’s doctors and nurses urged bosses to declare an emergency as they opened a new ward and moved adults into a paediatric ward after 200 new Covid patients were admitted in recent days.
In the email, management said that “every hospital in northeast London is struggling” and that the rest of the capital would be the same within two weeks.


Maybe west end unthinker can tell us whether not putting London into lockdown earlier was a good idea or not ?

Bearing in mind that they new about the new variant in September nd their rates were going up,even though the north’s were going down.

They also knew by December 8th that the highest rates of new infections in London were rising fastest in children in school years 7 to 12. In those schools they had increased by 70X in the space of 6 weeks . That is why Greenwhich and other LA’s wanted to close schools down the week before Xmas but were threatened with legal cation by the government if they did.

Plus bear in mind that critical care being so swamped now means they will struggle to deal. It just with Covid patients but with heart attacks, RTAs and crime. Victims of all ages.


Anyone still think Boris is the man or the job ?

You keep saying that but many people were saying schools should close before Xmas me included well before Xmas


Many people did not think students should go to university in October before the event .

Many people think schools should bot be going back in January before it was partially announced .

Many people are saying that the current policy in London for some boroughs schools to go back when others are bit going back is bonkers .

The government is still getting the whole thing wrong

Quote: King Street Cat "What's the source of that spreadsheet?'" https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... s-for-2020 This is the actual infections that have been tested to see if there is live infection in the cases, we already know that the false positives from RT-PCR and the flow tests are insanely high. From lab testing in France of over 250,000 tests it was at 35x cycles of the PCR to be 97% false positives of the positive cases. In the UK we do somewhere between 40-45 amplifications, thus the false positives are almost 100% of the positive cases. PHE estimate of 0.8 to 4% of all tests is a wild underestimate.

Quote: King Street Cat "What's the source of that spreadsheet?'" https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... s-for-2020 This is the actual infections that have been tested to see if there is live infection in the cases, we already know that the false positives from RT-PCR and the flow tests are insanely high. From lab testing in France of over 250,000 tests it was at 35x cycles of the PCR to be 97% false positives of the positive cases. In the UK we do somewhere between 40-45 amplifications, thus the false positives are almost 100% of the positive cases. PHE estimate of 0.8 to 4% of all tests is a wild underestimate.

The hindsight argument might have just about worked back in April/May, but I'm afraid it's no longer valid. People on the ground were warning of the current inevitability about 3 or 4 weeks ago.

You've made the mistake there of thinking that these people actually listen.
Can't count the number of "aahh well, its alright saying that now with hindsight" type posts there have been, yet they were told before and whilst it was happening.

We all know the harm caused to kids from challenging backgrounds - another extended period away from school does nobody any favours especially the children themselves. They need social interaction to aid their development into adulthood.

The first people to get the Astra-Zeneca jab should be all the teachers and if they refuse then they need to find another job. This isn't about teachers this is about the kids - the most important human capital we have.

Nope, sorry kids & students have to stay off school until we are clear of Covid in 2022 - DG and their ilk say that’s the best way, because losing a generation of children’s education makes so much sense.

So much to consider other than just the Covid but they just keep the blinkers on

I love your concern for the future of our children particularly those from underprivileged backgrounds.

Maybe you could support policies that ensure that they get fed such as free schools meals something which the Tories have reluctantly had to be dragged into.

Maybe you could support policies which provide affordable housing so that thousands of children are not homeless and living in hostels or a whole family in a room.

Maybe you could support policies that all children should be given access to a laptop which was promised by Boris at the start of the crisis but was dropped so that more money could be given to his friends in the private sector to squirrel away by pretending to set up a track and trace system or provide e PPE.

Maybe you could support policies which have not cut Educational psychology and support for children with special needs to the bone.

You use this arguement about helping children staying in school yet you seem happy to deny them the basics of life such as food and shelter.

You should read Maslows hierarchy of need. You cannot learn if you are hungry , you cannot learn if you are scared about whether you will have a roof over your head


Your arguements about schooling are nothing but straw men. You don’t care about the children as much as you care about supporting government propaganda

Quote: ColD "Who do you suggest is the right person for the job ?? It’s a mess and no denying it, but everyone seems to MR & Mrs hindsight'" So we have another government U Turn over schools in London which the government wanted to keep open even though most other schools were to stay shut. It seems that mr and Mrs U turn strike again rather than listening to those who are actually on the coal face and know what is happening So No hindsight here just those looking at reality and making the right decision https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-55511169

Quote: ColD "Who do you suggest is the right person for the job ?? It’s a mess and no denying it, but everyone seems to MR & Mrs hindsight'" So we have another government U Turn over schools in London which the government wanted to keep open even though most other schools were to stay shut. It seems that mr and Mrs U turn strike again rather than listening to those who are actually on the coal face and know what is happening So No hindsight here just those looking at reality and making the right decision https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-55511169