Despite the coronavirus outbreak, NHS hospital beds in the UK are four times emptier than normal and a newly built hospital in the north-east of England may now never be used.
“Tens of thousands of NHS hospital beds remain unoccupied amid the coronavirus crisis — about four times the normal number — due to huge ongoing efforts to free up space, and a slowdown in admissions from other causes,” reports HSJ.
“Figures from the national NHS operational dashboard, seen by HSJ, show that 40.9 per cent of NHS general acute beds were unoccupied as of the weekend — 37,500 of the total 91,600 relevant beds recorded in the data. That is 4,500 more than the 33,000 the NHS said had been freed up on 27 March, and nearly four times the normal amount of free acute beds at this time of year.”
One of the reasons for the empty hospital beds is that people who would normally go to hospital for treatment are avoiding doing so because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Experts have warned that this could cause more serious illnesses and deaths in the long term.
Another reason is that a lot of patients were discharged last month early in preparation for the coronavirus surge.
Meanwhile, NHS bosses have said that a new Nightingale Hospital built in Tyne and Wear to deal with extra coronavirus patients may now never be needed.
“I don’t think we will need to open,” said Martin Wilson, chief operating officer for Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
The empty hospital beds will prompt questions as to when the lockdown in the UK will end given that one of the core reasons for imposing it in the first place was to buy time in order to prevent the NHS becoming overwhelmed with patients.
The CDC is now investigating 180 cases of children with hepatitis of an “unknown cause,” although health experts in the UK say the cause is likely kids having weakened immune systems due to lockdown.
Five deaths have occurred in the U.S. as a result of the infections, which have swept the globe, impacting numerous countries.
“Adenovirus infection is being investigated as being the possible cause, with nearly half the kids testing positive for the pathogen,” reports CNBC. “Adenovirus is a common virus that normally causes cold or flu-like symptoms. It is not a known cause of hepatitis in otherwise healthy children.”
As we highlighted last month, health experts in the UK warned that the outbreak was likely caused by multiple COVID-19 lockdowns preventing kids from socializing with others and therefore developing strong immune systems.
Adenoviruses cause the common cold, but this can develop into hepatitis if a weakened immune system is unable to fight it off.
“I think it is likely that children mixing in kindergartens and schools have lower immunity to seasonal adenoviruses than in previous years because of restrictions,” said Professor Simon Taylor-Robinson.
“This means they could be more at risk of developing hepatitis because their immune response is weaker to the virus,” he added.
Nowhere in the mainstream reporting of this new surge in cases is it mentioned that multiple lockdowns could have caused the outbreak
Instead, the CDC is still “conducting lab tests to see if the Covid virus might also be a possible cause,” despite the fact that the children impacted in the initial cluster of cases in Alabama did not have COVID-19.
The legacy media is loathe to admit that the same lockdowns they vehemently supported will have drastic consequences for years to come.
As we previously highlighted, a new study published in the Royal Society Open Science journal found that lockdowns in the UK caused around 60,000 children to suffer clinical depression.
A major study by Johns Hopkins University concluded that global lockdowns have had a much more detrimental impact on society than they have produced any benefit, with researchers urging that they “are ill-founded and should be rejected as a pandemic policy instrument.”
Many infants are also suffering from cognitive developmental and speech disorders due to adults wearing face coverings during the pandemic.
Illustrating how the issue has largely disappeared, a new poll of Americans finds COVID to be the least of their concerns out of a list of 12 different subjects.
The survey was conducted by Pew Research between April 25-May 1.
Just 19 per cent of respondents said COVID was still a “very big problem,” while 31 per cent said it was a “small problem” and a further 12 per cent said it was “not a problem at all.”
In comparison, 70 per cent of Americans said inflation was a “very big problem,” with a further 23 per cent describing it as a “moderately big problem.”
Here's the latest pew research on the top 12 things Americans are concerned about. Funny, I don't see Ukraine anywhere on that list. pic.twitter.com/uqCYyKu2nU
Ten other issues, including violent crime, illegal immigration and the condition of infrastructure, all rank above COVID-19 in terms of being more of a concern.
As one commentator observed, the war in Ukraine appears nowhere on the list, although Pew chose not to include it as an option.
“Democrats are nearly four times as likely as Republicans to rate climate change as a very big problem (63% vs. 16%),” reports Pew. “Republicans, by contrast, are far more likely than Democrats to view illegal immigration as a very big problem (65% vs. 19%).”
Despite the pandemic virtually being over, numerous states are still enforcing indoor mask mandates and other COVID restrictions that refuse to die.
As we highlighted yesterday, Broadway star Patti LuPone launched an angry rant at an audience member for not wearing a mask properly during a Q&A session despite the fact that she wasn’t wearing one inside the theater.