Not taking a side on this (& clearly lockdown damages health massively via economy & mental toll - and that needs to be considered) but one of the primary reasons for the first lockdown was to stop the NHS being overwhelmed & becoming unable to treat anyone.

@robpowellnews I hope the backlogs wont take up to 5 years to clear

@robpowellnews Nightingale hospitals... empty

@robpowellnews It does exactly that . Too many conspiracy stories on Facebook does not help matters .

@robpowellnews And this is exactly what people wanting a "herd immunity" approach don't get. It will make that happen even quicker and more often.

@robpowellnews By the way, you don't understand exponentials, data or differentials... just saying

@robpowellnews What exactly are we trying to achieve are we all living in lockdown until a vaccine is found? The mortality rate compared to other illnesses is low, go spend time on a cancer ward and tell me the knock on effect of all this doesn’t scare you more than COVID.

@robpowellnews my mates wife just passed away with cancer because her treatment & scans stopped due to Covid

@robpowellnews Then why did we build nightingale hospitals not to use them? The whole reason was to protect the NHS and ensure normality could resume. It hasn’t, and now other cause deaths will outstrip covid for months, years even. People are right to be pissed off

@robpowellnews Didn’t we produce more hospitals for this? Then closed them all down because empty? Where they gone?

@robpowellnews Agreed, if lockdown happens, and hospital admissions from covid are reduced, surely that frees up resources for non covid treatment , I hate lockdown but believe it's the right thing to do now, and that's now ,not 3 wks time x

@robpowellnews @antoguerrera "Why are people tweeting that a national lockdown leads to more deaths..." Because the cure for stupid still eludes us.

@robpowellnews It’s probably something they read in a re-post on their 3rd cousin’s Facebook page 😒

@robpowellnews But isn’t that why these nightingale hospitals were built and preparations made to help cope ? Why are they empty?

@robpowellnews Sadly I think more people are opposing lockdown due to pubs,restaurants and gyms being closed, not for the general welfare of the country, economy or mental health problems x

@robpowellnews 8 yrs of austerity on the NHS drove staffing levels down & now we are reaping the rewards of all those job losses!!! Tory economics doesn’t work & now we’re in a crisis the results are there for all to see!

@robpowellnews The clinics are still empty (I've had to attend half a dozen and there's never anybody waiting) and the NHS wasn't overwhelmed last time. This time they have prepared better.

@robpowellnews The NHS is always overwhelmed in winter as it’s been run into the ground by osterity and so many Tory Governments. The question is actually is the NHS any more overwhelmed this year than any other year?