1/ Everyone asks how we are: in truth, we’re doing ok. We’ve made unbelievable changes to hospital layout, ways of working & workforce redeployment which make me proud to serve in the #NHS . But one thing really worries me, causing anxiety, anger & fear: people still OUT #COVID19

2/ far more than they should be, especially runners. On my drive home, the streets of Fulham are TEEMING with runners & everyone else. Clapham Common is PACKED every day. Some people are following distancing rules, but too many aren’t. Plus with runners & cyclists breathing hard,

3/ coughing, wiping faces & sweat flying, I’d have thought droplet spread is more than the prescribed 2m. Evidence suggests a small degree of aerosolisation w/ breathing & talking, so surely stands to reason that physical exertion produces more aerosol (airborne droplet) spread?

4/ I wonder what would make these people change their behaviour? Instead of police fines or warnings I wish I was allowed to bring them into my A&E to see what we see on a daily basis. Maybe they’d think twice if they saw a patient in their 20s come in in extremis, look the nurse

5/ in the eye and say “I’m going to die”, and then die in front of them 30 mins later? Or maybe if they saw our team in tears afterwards? Or maybe if they saw frail elderly people with CoVID, come in one after another with very little we can do to save them, such that some days

6/ it feels like someone’s ordered a nationwide cull of anyone over 80? Or maybe if they saw someone who’s about to be intubated to go on a ventilator, grateful that they’ve had the chance to ‘phone their loved ones but with a look on their face that says they know it will

7/ probably be the last time they ever speak to them (that one still gets me, even now)? Or maybe, if they could spend the last few minutes w/ a frail old Indian man w/ dementia, terrified & unable to say a single word because he can barely breathe, but becalmed because at least

8/ someone is holding his hand and speaking his mother tongue to him one last time as his life ebbs away? I’m thinking: you do know we’re also losing men & women of your age, don’t you? I look at the faces of these young people and wonder whether the next time I see their face

9/ will be when their in my Resus room in profound respiratory distress, about to be intubated by our anaesthetic team or even having CPR performed on them after their heart has stopped?

This isn’t a drill. This isn’t a laugh. Now is not the time to get complacent just because

10/ it looks like the surge might not hit. It still might, and if you continue to fart around with undisciplined social distancing, it definitely will. I’d prefer it if you didn’t join in the #ClapForCarers and #ClapForTheNHS if you don’t practise proper distancing. I’d rather

11/ you just stayed the f*** home. That would be a much better gift than any amount of applause, discounts and free meals (lovely as they are). Just think twice next time you’re out on your run. Or maybe just #StayHomeSaveLives #StayInWorkOut