Guest Post by Mark Crispin Miller
Those who think the worst is over better think again—because it really won’t be over til WE end it
As (misleadingly) reported in the Independent yesterday (scroll down), the NHS is going all-out “to boost capacity ahead of what is expected to be a busy winter,” what with the looming “combination of Covid and flu.” The plan is to “create thousands more beds,” and take on thousands of new staffers, (ostensibly) to make the NHS a more efficient guardian of the British people’s health. To that end, they’re hiring scads of call workers (including “mental health professionals”), “extra social prescribing link workers” (whatever those are) and “health and wellbeing coaches,” all to be devoted to a vast improvement in NHS services, so as to keep the British people “safe.”
Thus the Independent gives its readers the impression that the NHS wants more than anything to better its performance for the greater good. The only hint that something else is in the works comes way down in the 13th paragraph, as an innocuous aside:
Planning is also under way for an autumn Covid-19 booster programme as well as the annual flu campaign.
