Anger and sorrow as UK COVID-19 death toll nears 100,000

LONDON (Reuters) – As UK COVID-19 death toll nears 100,000, relatives of the mourning dead have expressed anger over Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s handling of worst public health crisis for a century.

When the new coronavirus, which first appeared in China in 2019, silently crept across the UK in March, Johnson first said he was confident it could be dispatched in weeks.

But 97,939 dead later, the UK has the fifth-worst official death toll in the world – more than its civilian death toll in WWII and twice the death toll in the 1940-41 Blitz bombing campaign, although the total population was then lower.

Behind the numbers is heartache and anger.

Jamie Brown’s father, 65, died at the end of March after being suspected of contracting COVID-19 while traveling on a train to London for work. At the time, the government was considering a lockdown.

Doctors told him to stay home, a few days later he woke up with a tight chest, disoriented and nauseous, and was taken to hospital in an ambulance. He died of cardiac arrest five minutes after arriving.

Her son said the virus damaged his lungs to the point where his heart gave up. He was a month away from his retirement. “For me, it has been terrifying and heartbreaking to see all that you hope has been taken away. He will never be at my wedding; he will never meet grandchildren, ”Brown told Reuters.

“Then you watch the death toll go up as the ministers pat each other on the back and tell you how great a job they’ve done. It goes very quickly from personal mourning to collective mourning.

Some opposition scientists and politicians say Johnson acted too slowly to stop the spread of the virus and then flouted both the government’s strategy and the execution of its response.

Johnson has resisted calls for an investigation into how the crisis is handled, and ministers say while they didn’t do everything right, they were making decisions quickly and had the world’s best immunization programs.

The UK death toll – defined as those who die within 28 days of a positive test – rose to 97,939 on January 24. The death toll has grown by an average of over 1,000 a day over the past 7 days.

“ JUST UNFORGETTABLE ” RESPONSE

In a series of investigations, Reuters reported that the UK government had made several mistakes: it was slow to spot the arrival of infections, it was late with a lockdown and it continued to send infected patients back to homes in care.

The government’s chief scientific adviser, Patrick Vallance, said in March that 20,000 deaths would be a good result. Shortly afterwards, a worst-case scenario prepared by government science advisers estimated the possible death toll at 50,000.

Many bereaved are angry and want an immediate public inquiry to learn from the government’s response.

Ranjith Chandrapala died in early May in the same hospital where he had taken passengers to and from his bus.

His daughter, Leshie, said the 64-year-old was slim, healthy and hadn’t missed a day’s work driving buses in the past 10 years.

She said she was not given a face mask – she bought him one herself – and passengers were not asked to wear it.

“The government’s handling of the crisis has been negligent, it is simply unforgivable,” she said. “The people in power just sent these guys to the line unprotected.”

Chandrapala stopped working on April 24 after developing symptoms of COVID-19. He died in intensive care 10 days later, with his family unable to say goodbye in person.

At the start of the pandemic in March, one of England’s most experienced doctors told the public that wearing a face mask could increase the risk of infection. The government made the face mask mandatory for passengers in England on June 15.

Almost 11 months after the UK recorded its first death, some UK hospitals look like a ‘war zone’, Vallance said, as doctors and nurses battle more infectious variants of the SARS-CoV-coronavirus. 2 that scientists fear will be more deadly.

On the front lines of COVID-19, patients and doctors are fighting for life.

Joy Halliday, intensive care and acute medicine consultant at Milton Keynes University Hospital, said it was “really heartbreaking” for staff to see so many patients die.

“(Patients) deteriorate very, very quickly, and they go from talking to you and looking really great, 20 minutes later not talking to you, 20 minutes later not alive.” », She declared.

“It’s incredibly difficult for everyone.”