Well, we have the worst rates of infection and death in the world right now and are opening up and letting it run its course. Government want to get the worst of it done before winter. It's a giant experiment which will infect millions of people with this disease. Watch this space guys, UK is about to let the world know what happens!
It's a matter of record that hospitals were at breaking point. Just search occupancy levels for the appropriate time. Sorry I'm absolutely fucked today after playing football yesterday so I'll just show a proximate quote, first that came up.
Commenting on the latest NHS winter daily situation report data, David Maguire, Senior Analyst at The King’s Fund, said:
‘It’s been another week during which hospitals have been stretched to breaking point. The statistics paint a worrying picture of hospitals filling up and thousands of people waiting to be transferred from ambulances.
‘Last week, the average bed occupancy was more than 95 per cent, with more than a third of hospital trusts (47 out of 132) hitting 99 per cent occupancy at least once and 14 hitting 100 per cent. Even talking about 100 per cent occupancy would have been unthinkable 10 years ago, but now it’s becoming almost routine. The service is already operating beyond its limits and the worst of winter is yet to come.’
That was the situation Covid hit us in, we just didn't have the capacity, 1/4 of Germany's critical care beds for example.