A campaign group founded by two NHS staff has asked the public to ‘stay at home’ instead of clapping for NHS staff.
The request comes on the day when thousands of households around the country are expected to resume the weekly ‘clap for carers’ event which took place during the first national lockdown back in April.
However, this time the show of support has been called ‘clap for heroes’ rather than ‘clap for carers’.
The campaign group ‘NHS Million’ tweeted the following message to their 641k followers:
‘NHS staff need your support now more than ever.
‘But since the last #clapforheroes over 650 frontline healthcare workers have died.
‘This time, instead of clapping for NHS staff, will you maybe just stay at home for them instead?
‘Stay at home. Protect the NHS. Save lives’
The tweet has been ‘liked’ over 2k times and has been retweeted over 1k times.
NHS Million was founded by Joseph Blunden, an NHS employee who works with hospitals around England to improve patients’ experience.
The campaign is also directed by Dr Katie Rogerson, a children’s doctor based in London.
The duo frequently works with a range of other NHS staff and patients to deliver essential initiatives.
The name, ‘NHS Million’ reflects the fact that the NHS cares for ‘a million patients every day’.
A statement on their website points out that: ‘The views the team share via NHS Million are done so in a private capacity and do NOT reflect the views of their employers’.
Many frontline NHS staff, who are battling to keep patients who have contracted COVID-19 alive, feel let down by both the public and the government.
Images and videos of people ignoring social distancing rules, as well as the requirement to wear a mask whenever possible, have been a bitter pill for healthcare workers to swallow.
After the first lockdown, COVID appeared to be more-or-less under control in the UK.
But since then, COVID infection and mortality rates have increased to the same levels they were at during the first wave of the virus.
Scientists have attributed the high transmission rate of COVID to a new strain of the virus that was first detected in Kent several weeks ago.
The new variant of COVID is transmitted between people much more easily, although the exact means by which this more virulent transmission is achieved is not clear.
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