The NHS is facing a ‘worst-case scenario’ for flu this winter. That was the verdict of Professor Meghana Pandit, national medical director for the NHS, this morning as she warned the tsunami of ‘super-flu’ cases sweeping the UK is ‘unprecedented’. Worse still, the peak of this wave is ‘not in sight’.
Her warning came as NHS figures revealed the number of patients in hospital with flu in England is up 55 per cent compared with last week – meaning an average of 2,660 patients are in hospital every day. Internal NHS forecasts predict that, by the end of the week, that number could have risen as high as 8,000 – surpassing the previous record of 5,400.
The NHS has repeated its calls for those eligible to take up the flu jab while the usual suspects have called for face masks to become the norm again. Professor Pandit warned that Britons must act quickly to gain flu immunity in time for Christmas Day because the vaccine needs 14 days to take effect.
While the pressure English hospitals are under is certainly severe, we should be careful about calling it ‘unprecedented’. The NHS only began publishing flu figures in 2021 so it’s not possible to compare with earlier – and possibly more dramatic – flu seasons. For the moment then, calls for Covid-era curbs are grossly exaggerated or, at worst, a dangerous infringement of public liberties.
This piece originally appeared in The Spectator’s Lunchtime Espresso newsletter.
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