Britain is no country for old men: Britain, emerging from the coronavirus lockdown of spring and summer will be no country for old men in the winter to come

Tuesday 14 July 2020

Britain, emerging from the coronavirus lockdown of spring and summer will be no country for old men in the winter to come

Letter to the House of Commons Health and Social Care Select Committee from the King’s Fund, Health Foundation & Nuffield Trust : 'The pandemic has not landed evenly across the population : it has taken a greater toll on older people, on men, on poorer communities, and on Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic groups.'

Old men and women in Britain, emerging from the isolation of 4 months of coronavirus lockdown, opened their daily newspapers today and were greeted with the following :

The Times

The Guardian

The Telegraph

The Independent

Experts commissioned by Sir Patrick Vallance, the Government’s Chief Scientific Adviser, were asked to model a 'reasonable worst case scenario' for the return of Coronavirus to Britain this coming winter. They have concluded that Britain must start 'intense preparations' for a second wave of coronavirus that has the potential to kill as many as 120,000 hospital patients in that worst case scenario. Given the fact that old men and women over the age of 70 are in the group of those most vulnerable to serious complications if they contract the virus, the conclusions of the Report make sober reading.

Stephen Holgate, Chair of the Expert Group and Professor of Immunopharmacology at the University of Southampton said : “The modelling suggests that deaths could be higher with a new wave of Covid-19 this winter, but the risk of this happening could be reduced if we take action immediately. With relatively low numbers of Covid-19 cases at the moment, this is a critical window of opportunity to help us prepare for the worst that winter can throw at us.”

Every winter hospitals experience a surge in older patients as seasonal flu sweeps through the population, old people have more falls on icy pavements and the cold weather exacerbates their existing health problems such as heart disease and lung conditions.

Dame Anne Johnson, a co-author of the Report and Professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at University College London said : “This winter we have to factor in the likelihood of another wave of coronavirus infections and the ongoing impacts of the first wave. We have to be prepared that we might also experience a flu epidemic this year.”