Intended for healthcare professionals

Views And Reviews Acute Perspective

David Oliver: Dismissing unwell people to argue for pandemic freedoms is abhorrent and unrealistic

BMJ 2021; 375 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n2844 (Published 24 November 2021) Cite this as: BMJ 2021;375:n2844
  1. David Oliver, consultant in geriatrics and acute general medicine
  1. Berkshire
  1. davidoliver372{at}googlemail.com
    Follow David on Twitter @mancunianmedic

On 12 November the Daily Telegraph headlined with “Six healthy children died of covid in a year, but lockdowns fuel youth health time bomb.” It explained that, of 3100 child deaths in the 12 months since March 2020, only 61 were “with covid,” 24 were “from covid,” and six were in children with no underlying health conditions.1 The Daily Mail ran a similar piece, emphasising that mortality from covid in children had been around one in 500 000.2

Although the stories centred on the serious issue of worsening access to care and worse outcomes in children with serious conditions other than covid, the headlines and graphics were clearly designed to push a message that our focus on covid protection measures had been …

View Full Text

Log in

Log in through your institution

Subscribe

* For online subscription