Public Urged to Wear Face Masks Amid Flu Season “Like the Covid Period”
It’s more than five years since the Covid lockdowns, but it seems the powers that be haven’t forgotten how much they enjoyed telling us all what to do in the name of public health.
As we enter flu season, boffins at the UK Health Security Agency are again urging the public to don face masks “when unwell”. Are lockdowns next? The Telegraph has more.
Face masks should be worn in public by anyone feeling ill during a surge in flu cases, health officials have said.
Experts at the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) have urged people to “consider wearing a mask” if they have symptoms.
Some NHS hospitals have also told patients with flu-like symptoms to stay away altogether to help limit the spread.
A “tidal wave” of flu has already left 10 times as many patients in hospital compared with this time two years ago.
The public health body said “face coverings continue to be a useful tool in limiting the spread of respiratory viruses in some situations”.
“Wearing a well-fitting mask when unwell can reduce the number of particles containing viruses that are released from the mouth and nose of someone who is infected with a respiratory infection,” officials said.
Dr Jamie Lopez Bernal, consultant epidemiologist at the UKHSA, said: “We expect to see these viruses circulating more widely in the lead-up to Christmas and more people getting sick – threatening a potential peak over the festive period and into the New Year.”
Giving advice on how to “flu-proof your festivities”, Dr Bernal added: “Wash your hands regularly, keep indoor spaces well-ventilated and if you need to go out while unwell, consider wearing a face mask.”
Mandatory face masks were dropped in 2022 from official guidance after the pandemic with individual NHS trusts now able to decide if and when they should be used depending on local infections and pressure on hospitals.
Flu cases have surged to a record high, with the elderly expected to be hardest hit over Christmas.
Those people eligible for flu jabs have been urged to come forward as soon as possible.
Dr Bernal said: “Now is your last chance if eligible to help get protected before Christmas.”
The rates of patients aged over 85 in hospital have doubled in the past week, and figures show an average of 1,717 patients were admitted to a hospital bed every day last week because of flu – the highest on record for this time of year.
[…]Sir Jim Mackey, the chief of NHS England, warned that the health service was facing pressures that “in a lot of ways will be like the Covid period”.
He said it was “reasonable to assume” flu patients would take up between 5,000 and 8,000 hospital beds each day by next week, far higher than the previous peak last January of 5,408.
Worth reading in full.
Tom
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Public urges medical health agency to go to hell. Fact: no viruses have ever been seen because they are apparently extremely small. Thus, no silly and stupid mask is ever going to filter out such a small particle. Grow a brain, people.
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very old white guy
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Great, wear a bacteria incubator on your face, breathe in that which you should be expelling from your lungs, what could possibly go wrong. I guess the medical profession has forgotten why so many people died during the Spanish Flu. Pneumonia, caused by wearing masks. Why is it that generation after generation we refuse to remember what was learned?
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Aaron
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warp speed 2 – maha ?
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