Lifting lockdown early is ridiculous, will bring another peak says NHS paramedic

26 April 2020, 08:55 | Updated: 7 June 2023, 08:56

Paramedic tells Richard Spurr lifting lockdown now is "ridiculous"

By Seán Hickey

Discussions over whether lockdown should be lifted in the next few weeks are coming too early, as the UK has just turned a corner.

Josh is an NHS paramedic with the ambulance service and was speaking to Richard Spurr after he was told that lockdown is ruining the economy and should be lifted.

Josh believed that "we are starting to turn the tide" in terms of coronavirus cases and the UK is on the right track, but shouldn't act too soon on lifting lockdown.

He said that he and his NHS colleagues have "gotten into a rhythm" and as a result are definitely coping better with the disease now. "If lockdown isn't eased and released at the right time it could lead to a second wave" the paramedic warned

Richard recalled a conversation he had earlier in the show where he was told that lockdown is dangerous for the UK economy and we must lift it as soon as we can.

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Josh insisted that despite what these experts may say, he argued that "we can't have an economy if we don't have a relatively healthy working population".

Richard prodded the paramedic, asking if he had "met anybody in the NHS that would agree with a lifting of lockdown?" Josh disagreed entirely.

The NHS worker told Richard it was common opinion in the NHS that the idea of lifting lockdown in the next few weeks is ridiculous.

He added that although we are hanging our hopes on a vaccine to lift lockdown, it is only a quick fix. "You can't defeat a virus with medicine, it only prevents it" Josh said, concluding that "lockdown is the best tool we have".