🧵The Covid Inquiry’s latest reports have made one thing brutally clear: the first year of the pandemic - and especially the second Covid wave in winter 2020/21 - was devastating.
Much of that devastation was avoidable.
This 🧵: impact on NHS, impact on bereaved, and avoidable harm. 1/19
Start with the NHS.
However bad the first wave was in England - and it was awful - the second wave was worse.
More than twice as many people were admitted to hospital with Covid in the second wave compared to the first wave. 2/19
The second wave in particular placed extraordinary strain on hospitals and staff.
Services were overwhelmed. Staff worked under relentless pressure.
“Coped” is too mild a word for what many endured. 3/19
NHS staff were among the most exposed people during that 1st yr. They had neither the protection of effective treatments or - for the first 9 months - a vaccine.
Healthcare workers were much more likely to have been infected, to get Long Covid, and to die. 4/19
By April 2021 half of NHS staff said work or study had harmed their mental health; and by Nov 2021 64% were suffering from a work- or study-related mental health condition.
Of ICU staff in England in Jan 2021, 52% reported symptoms consistent with severe depression & 47% with PTSD 5/19
Prof Christina Pagel
Simon Johnson