By Ashley Young-
Recent warnings from scientists that Britain faces the prospect of thousands of annual Covid deaths for years to come could amount to fear mongering, researcher Sheeran Bolton has said.
Researcher, Sheeran Bolton, a gender activist and former teacher, told The Eye Of Media.Com that scientists making announcements like these need hard statistical facts to show that there would be more deaths this winter than the last, adding that such public statements can be seen to be fueling fear in the society.
Unless scientists can show there is likely to be an increase in deaths compared to the other three waves, it is pointless making speculations that can promote intense fear.
”Scientists should be encouraging the public to get vaccinated and continue to wear masks in enclosed spaces, not making frightening predictions they have no way of proving with hard facts. Announcements like these make people think who are still on the fence about getting vaccinated could take the skeptical view that announcements like these are being made to scare people in taking the vaccine”.
In reality, these scientists, like many who itch to be featured in the press are seeking attention to promote themselves”, she said.
Scientists are predicting doom likely to sweep the country every winter, as Covid-19 continues to spread in the Uk, but at a lower rate than in the last week..
Troubled scientists believe there is likely to be a fourth wave this winter, opening the doors to a continuous wave of superspreading that leads to thousands more death in winter. The expectation could be true, but scientists have no way of determining this in advance”, she added.
Spraking to The Guardian, proff Adam Finn of Bristol University said :“We are going to see problems with Covid for a long time,” said Prof Adam Finn of Bristol University. “The virus has shown itself to be genetically more nimble than we expected, though not as much as the influenza virus. So I would envisage Covid being a continuing problem for some time, with annual death tolls reaching thousands and possibly tens of thousands.”
This view was backed by Prof James Naismith, director of the Rosalind Franklin Institute in Oxford. “We won’t see Covid-19 spread like wildfire again. There will be enough herd immunity in the population to ensure it will never kick off like that again.
“But everything will not be hunky dory. We will have waves of illness similar to flu, I think. And they will kill. The issue is: how many? That is difficult to assess but if you look at current Covid deaths, these are occurring at about 100 a day.
“So a wave that kills a few thousand seems a reasonable measure of what you might expect in a future winter wave. And then, you might get a bad wave one year and have the tens of thousands of deaths,” Prof James Naismith, director of the Rosalind Frankline Institute said.
Prof Jonathan Ball of Nottingham University said: “I suspect numbers of Covid deaths will decrease over time as population immunity to the disease not only increases but also broadens. This is not to say we won’t have deaths every year. But to say it’s likely to be in the thousands is overly pessimistic.
“It could be to start with, but I think the amount of severe disease will decrease over time because of continual exposure to the virus, which will therefore boost natural immunity.”
“Covid is not going to be something that brings society to a halt,” added Finn. “And we can minimize the problems it poses – through careful use of vaccines, for example.”
A similar note of caution was expressed by Prof Martin Hibberd of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. “I think we may be at a turning point in Covid-19 in the UK, with the proportion of people with antibodies now rising above 90%. That means that soon we will be in as good a place as possible with vaccine protection – and yet, we are still seeing disease.
“This is what we will have to live with: a new nasty disease that will continue to cause problems. I think we can use influenza as an example here. We have vaccines for influenza and yet we still have perhaps an average of 20,000 deaths a year in the UK.”
Predictions about deaths in the winter ahead is unhealthy for the mental health of millions of people in the Uk, who do not need to be stimulated into fear, given the difficult challenges of the past 18 months.
It will be advisable to the media to avoid featuring experts in articles that can be seen to be fearmongering , for the sake of click bait or enrichening a professional relationship with scientist who may have other motives in mind, some journalists, like many members of the public , dread the possibility of any worsening of the pandemic due to the re-opening of society on June 19.