THE POSITIVE PROFESSOR
SOCIAL media’s voice of calm Karol Sikora has been signed up by the Daily Express. Readers can now enjoy his soothing advice in these troubled times that have won him hundreds of thousands of followers on Twitter. If you need reassuring everything’s going to be all right read Professor Positivity.
COMMUNICATIONS from Government over the past week or so have left me feeling frustrated and annoyed.
We always knew that we would face local outbreaks but the severe overreaction to a slight uptick in recorded infections has been quite unnecessary.
Where is the balance? Politicians have not helped one bit.
Look at the data. Infections in England over the past few days have only risen slightly and are not spiralling out of control. Indeed, when you correct for the increasing number of total tests it’s “flatlining”.
The number of people in hospital and on ventilators is at its lowest for months and NHS 111 telephony data shows continued decline in the incidence of the four key symptoms of infection.
Is Government looking at the bigger picture?
It isn’t a particularly difficult concept to grasp. If you test more, you will find more. The localised testing has been impressive and is the right approach but we need context when it is discussed.
These blips will happen. What we do not need is a wild overreaction.
Everywhere I look there are reports of lockdowns, over-50s being locked up, pubs being closed down.
It is just “over the top” and people making these doomsday predictions clearly don’t understand the impact they can have on people’s mental health.
We were just managing to restore some confidence to people so they would feel comfortable getting themselves checked.
I fear that in a week we have reversed that progress.
And so much of this is reported through anonymous Whitehall or Government sources, surrounded with the words “could” and “may”.
I don’t know who is to blame, the Government or the media, but we need to tighten up the communications. If we see this circus every time we find more cases in a local hotspot, then I really fear for the mental and physical health of the nation.