I am somewhat bemused by the very forceful way some people claim 'this is not the 'flu'. I could neither claim it is or it is not. Neither can many of the Scientists who simply refer to it as being a corona virus, which is a large group of viruses and includes the common cold. One of the biggest challenges of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the illness COVID-19, (CV19) is that it’s completely new. Seasonal flu, on the other hand, has been around for a long time, so scientists and doctors know a lot about it, and how to treat it and have preventative measures for it. We have our 'flu injection each year of a vaccine against the flu that has been estimated to be likely to occur that Winter.
As many have said, the 'flu is usually not as bad as CV19 which has proved to be very fast at spreading through the population and very quick to invade a person's body reaching the lungs and even the heart very quickly in some cases.
This is why we are taking it so seriously. Some people have died more quickly than we have been used to seeing e.g. with flu which might become pneumonia, and some people have displayed various symptoms not all others have e. g. diarrhoea. Another phenomenon is that other people seem to have had it and not felt ill. Yet presumably these people have spread it because they did not know they had it.
All this led us to take the drastic action we are doing now: lockdown. But this is hard to reverse. There will probably be some more cases popping up as we come out of this self-imposed isolation where, by its nature, our own immune systems have gone down somewhat. There are too other dreadful effects. Having emptied the hospitals as far as possible to be in readiness for a large influx of CV19 patients, those on waiting lists for other interventions have had to wait. There will be deaths from cancer, heart disease and other illnesses because people were not seen at the appropriate stage for treatment to save them. This has been reported by Consultants brave enough to speak out. They are brave because the NHS Staff have been told that if they discuss any aspect of their working conditions they will be given their notice.
There have been so many terrible things happen during the 12 weeks we have stayed in our homes. For me, I shall find it hard to get over seeing the news items where ambulances were turned away from hospitals because they were taking elderly patients with CV19 to be admitted. The Newscaster said hospitals are refusing admission to elderly people from Care Homes with CV19.
These poor people were returned to their Residential Home to be nursed in ordinary beds, with no special equipment, nothing to aid their breathing, nothing to make them comfortable. The poor Staff, most of whom had no appropriate training, had to care for them as they died, unable to breathe. The Staff had no PPE, or other equipment appropriate for such nursing conditions. Obviously, however well the Staff barrier nursed the sick patients, the disease spread and more and more elderly Residents became very ill and were refused admission to Hospital.
Then, around the second May Bank Holiday, I saw on TV Matt Hancock at the podium declaring that he had given Care Homes "all the support and help they needed right from the start". A Manager of such a Home was watching and said she was "angry" as "this was not true". They were on their own and were looking up how to deal with situations on Google, and they had no PPE. Their Residents died without the right medical support and no medical alleviation for their distressing symptoms. They died without seeing their family.
