Independent Sage, a pressure group of ’eminent experts‘ are demnding that UK government impose its plan B restrictions now to ‘save NHS and Xmas’
Independent Sage’s Professor Susan Michie, a communist party ‘behavioural expert’ who also sits on the Government’s official science panel SAGE, said: “To save the NHS and Christmas, the Government needs to enable behaviours to get our high transmission rates down”
The demand come as NHS data published last week reveals the extent of the crisis within the NHS with waiting lists for routine care soaring to and 999 calls and ambulance waits hitting record levels.
Meanwhile there are questions about whether the current Covid situation is to blame, given that virus appears to be in retreat with admissions and cases falling.
The Mail Online reports: Independent Sage, a pressure group of eminent experts who’ve pushed for an Australian-style virus elimination strategy, said compulsory masks and widespread WFH were ‘urgently’ needed to ‘save the NHS and Christmas‘.
The group — which includes a former Government chief scientific adviser, a Communist Party member and some of No10’s own scientists — claimed the ‘very high levels of Covid’ were putting ‘extreme pressure’ on the health service.
Independent Sage’s call to action comes after a swathe of shocking statistics laid bare the extent of the crisis within the NHS, with waiting lists for routine care soaring to another high and 999 calls and ambulance waits hitting record levels.
Doctors said the NHS was being brought ‘to its knees’ with patients being left to die in the back of ambulances and waiting rooms because staff are so busy.
But other experts argue the current Covid situation doesn’t justify moving to Plan B, given that admissions for the virus have fallen for nearly a week straight and are projected to fall even more in the coming weeks.
Covid cases have also been trending down since October 24, in line with the country’s major surveillance study which found a 16 per cent weekly fall last week, and death rates have also started to follow suit.
‘The Government needs to urgently bring in Plan B… The pressure on the NHS is extreme and increasing, the backlog of treatment is at a record high, it needs to act now,’ Independent Sage said.
‘Most importantly, working from home where possible and mandated facemasks in indoor spaces are needed. We also believe additional protective measures should be brought in, including ensuring good ventilation in schools and other public spaces and financial support for self-isolation.’
No10 has said it will only revert to its winter Covid ‘Plan B’ strategy if the NHS faces ‘unsustainable’ pressure, which ministers argue is not the case yet despite health leaders insisting otherwise.
Cambridge University epidemiologist Dr Raghib Ali, who is also an NHS consultant in acute medicine, said the current NHS crisis was not the result of Covid but a ‘chronic staffing shortage’.
He said reverting to Plan B now would not solve the problem, adding: ‘Although there has often been too much alarmism, this is a genuine problem which is harming many patients… [but] there is no easy short-term solution.’
Independent Sage’s Professor Susan Michie, a behavioural expert who also sits on the Government’s official science panel SAGE, slammed Mr Johnson directly.
‘To save the NHS and Christmas, the Government needs to enable behaviours to get our high transmission rates down,’ she said. ‘The PM walking mask less round a hospital with vulnerable patients undermines that effort.’
Professor Michie, a member of Communist Party of Britain for more than 40 years, added: ‘Enabling behaviour change is everyone’s responsibility especially those in positions of authority and influence.
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