The COVID Diaries – 26 18th AprilS
David Nabarro, professor of global health at Imperial College, London, has delivered a stark warning on the day that the number of UK hospital deaths from coronavirus passed 15,000. He says there is no guarantee that a vaccine can be successfully developed and we may have to live with the threat “for the foreseeable future.”
The latest total for deaths, which does not include those in care homes and in the community, puts an even stronger spotlight on the government as anger grows among NHS workers and unions over the lack personal protective equipment (PPE) for hospital and care home staff on the front line.
In the United States, at yet another bizarre press conference, Donald Trump said the country was now ready to move to the next phase in the war against coronavirus. It was time, he said, “to open up. America wants to be open, and Americans want to be open”.
But without mass testing, contact tracing, and protective equipment for health workers – all in critically short supply – health experts warn that the president’s plan could be disastrous.