covid and therefore tough measures to keep r below one but also required more research and support from the nhs who found it quite difficult because it was a new disease and because of its nature presenting in many different ways, they found that long tarmac difficult to categorise at first and so with simon stephens will work together to bring forward clinics that could look across the range of conditions that are mostly gathered under the term long covid. i cared a lot about this for personal reasons as well as professional. we did not need to sign off from the centre, we just got on with it. do you happen to know, notwithstanding the early days of 2020, the campaign about long covid wasn t launched until october, do you know why there was that potential lag in the communication side of the debate? side of the debate? yes, i think it was essentially side of the debate? yes, i think it was essentially bleak, was essentially bleak, understandably the clinicians found it
people who are not boosted who are in that age group. young people can get this virus and spread it. and so i think that s really what s happening in some centres. we re seeing that several weeks ago younger people were the ones getting it. you saw those pictures of the long lines of people waiting for tests, those were young, healthy people. unfortunately, over the holidays they bring that back to relatives who maybe don t take as many risks on a usual basis are now those people are starting to show up at hospitals. we re actually seeing nursing home outbreaks for the first time in a while, and that really gives us concern, because when we see nursing home outbreaks we know that hospitalisations are close to follow. and then it obviously has knock on effects to public life, when people start to stop going to work, if tens of thousands of people going to hospital every day, what then happens to schools and transport? all these disruptions are just adding insult to injury. one thing tha
people who are not boosted who are in that age group. young people can get this virus and spread it. and so i think that s really what s happening in some centres. we re seeing that several weeks ago younger people were the ones getting it. you saw those pictures of the long lines of people waiting for tests, those were young, healthy people. unfortunately, over the holidays they bring that back to relatives who maybe don t take as many risks on a usual basis are now those people are starting to show up at hospitals. we re actually seeing nursing home outbreaks for the first time in a while, and that really gives us concern, because when we see nursing home outbreaks we know that hospitalisations are close to follow. and then it obviously has knock on effects to public life, when people start to stop going to work, if tens of thousands of people going to hospital every day, what then happens to schools and transport? all these disruptions are just adding insult to injury. one thing tha
it hit europe first, the 0micron wave, is there anything you can do to look across the pond and so we can look out for this or, you know. . ? it is very difficult. for south africa, for example, it s a different time of year, so there some seasonality to this which i think will begin to understand. when you look at the uk and the eu compared to the united states there is a very big difference in terms of the level of mitigation in every community, the density of various populations, in the age of the vaccinated. we have a lot of people in this country who are vaccinated who are older, but we also have people who are not boosted who are in that age group. young people can get this virus and spread it. and so i think that s really what s happening in some centres. we re seeing that several weeks ago younger people were the ones getting it. you saw those pictures of the long lines of people waiting for tests, those were young, healthy people. unfortunately, over the holidays they bring th
because when we see nursing home outbreaks we know that hospitalisations are close to follow. and then it obviously has knock on effects to public life, when people start to stop going to work, if tens of thousands of people going to hospital every day, what then happens to schools and transport? all these disruptions are just adding insult to injury. one thing that i think is interesting is that we re never going to control this virus in terms of getting to no infections, but i m very much advocating that we don t get a place where the hospitals are full. so actually slowing down the virus in regions where the hospitals are on the brink is actually important because that really makes a difference. so we will see if, for example, when there is a snowy day that keeps people home that can actually cut transmission a little bit. so anything helps. but, unfortunately, people staying home is not what they want to do. but what i will say is when that happens it is a little bit there s one