Derby and Burton Hospital leaders gave a sharp rebuttal to the “deniers” who still compare Covid-19 to influenza.
University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust, which oversees Royal Derby Hospital And Queens Hospital in Burton, she now has more Covid patients positive From what she saw at the height of the first wave.
It has approached 300 Covid patients in beds at the two sites – enough to fill nearly 12 full wards.
In contrast, leaders of the trust, such as Dr. Magnus Harrison, medical director and deputy chief executive, of the Local Democracy Reporting Service, said the organization rarely sees a patient with influenza admitted, and that would normally be if they had pneumonia.
Comments on social media in response to local and national news about the pandemic include frequent allegations of panic, that the virus is nothing compared to the flu and cherry picking statistics to serve a specific end goal – despite the efforts of the experts who have spoken on the issue.
LDRS asked hospital confidence leaders to comment on this during a board meeting yesterday (Tuesday, November 10).
“She thought more eloquently than any of us, one of our patients put it better, 61-year-old lady, who was a perfect fit before, said, ‘It could be anyone,’” said Dr. Cathy MacLean, Chair of the Trust Council. Strong message.
“This is a very dangerous situation and we want to help all the residents and we can only do that if they help us.
“We do not have flu wards because maybe people have the flu at home but if they come to the hospital they are likely to have pneumonia.”
“For the majority of people with Covid-19, it is a mild disease but for a large percentage it is a very serious disease indeed,” said Gavin Boyle, chief executive of the fund.
“If you are a member of the public and are wondering whether or not you should take it seriously, I think it’s quite certain to me, it’s a very dangerous situation.”
Dr Harrison said: “If you think about the numbers we’ve got in confidence right now, that’s roughly 12 wards full of patients with COVID-19 – so anyone who denies or wants to disprove any stats, they’re re-actualizing the facts for now.
“These numbers are higher than they were in the first wave of the pandemic, they are very important and I struggle to deal with people who say they are not real and that we are manipulating the numbers, and we are not doing that in any way.
“If you imagine the flu mortality rate each year, in a fairly average flu year there would be 7,000 deaths nationwide, and in a fairly good year with influenza without real significance or noticing that there could be 20,000 influenza deaths.
“ The nationwide death toll from Covid has already surpassed that at the national level (65,200 as of the week ending October 30), and this gives you an idea of the scale and how Covid is affecting people.
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“ Influenza, depending on common disease states (pre-existing cases), when you get the flu and with the vaccination program, we don’t see many patients with influenza, you may see the strange person, the single patient in the intensively ventilated treatment units as a result of the flu, but we really don’t expect it to pass A lot of them. 12 wards (for Covid patients) are much more than I expected from influenza. “
From January to August this year, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) recorded 13,619 deaths from pneumonia and 394 from influenza.
This is believed to have decreased due to the measures taken to curb the spread of Covid-19.
For comparison, figures from 2017 to 2018 show there were 22,000 flu-related deaths in England – and that could show the impact of Covid’s restrictions on influenza.
At the end of October, in England, there were 10,308 people hospitalized for Covid-19, with only two people hospitalized with the flu.
On Monday, the Office for National Statistics reported that as of the week ending October 30, there had been 65,200 Covid-related deaths in the UK this year, with two months of data remaining.
This is more than three times the total expected flu in a relatively high year.
The Covid death toll figure has also been significantly affected by the broad and important restrictions that have been in place across the UK to restrict and eliminate the virus – including two national bans and rules on social distancing, sterilization of hands, gatherings and face coverings.
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