Mar 6, 2021
LancsLive shares Covid ward feature with rivals to help fight ‘plandemic’ fake news
Medics fighting back tears, nurses quitting Facebook due to the stress of ‘plandemic’ conspiracy theories — and the patient who escaped a Covid coma only to insist that the virus was make-believe.
Those are just some of the stories consultants, doctors and nurses shared with LancsLive reporter Rachel Howarth after she was given access to the Covid wards at the Royal Lancaster Infirmary.
The website’s team have shared their material with other publishers and the BBC to ensure the messages from the hospital wards spread far and wide.
In a powerful dispatch posted on the website yesterday (Friday), Rachel said nurses, doctors, ward managers and infection control professionals shared their harrowing, but inspirational stories of the sacrifices made to stop the spread of the virus.
More than 3,300 people have died in Lancashire’s hospitals from Covid in the last year, with many more dying in their own homes.
Consultant Mohamed El naggar urged people who have been successfully treated to share their stories as a cautionary tale to others who think ‘it’ll never happen to me’.
“We’ve had a patient admitted who was so unwell to the point he went to ITU, was intubated, was in a complete coma and when he came out of that coma he still insisted there’s no such thing as Covid,” he said.
“You can understand how disheartening this would be to everyone who took part in his care. He refused completely to believe that it exists to begin with.
“He still thought it was one of those conspiracy theories. Now the problem is when people think like that, it does put all our efforts to shame.
“The effects of Covid on the people here and the way it’s affected our mental, social and our lives has been massive. For anyone to come and say that doesn’t exist, it’s just insulting everyone , the relatives of people who have seen it, you’re insulting patients who have died.
“It’s very heartbreaking for you to feel that way. People who had been looking after that patient all that time felt really unwell because we put in a lot of time and effort to get you better.”
Dr Shahedal Bari, executive medical director at University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust, added: “We are seeing a significant number of people affected.
“We must be mindful that this hasn’t gone away.
“It is important to realise that this disease affects anyone and everyone. There are very high risk groups, male, over 70, those with hypertension, renal problems or those on cancer treatment. But we have got deaths from young people. There’s no doubt this can affect anyone.
“This is not a plandemic. Please do not put fake news on any media, we have seen our staff losing their lives. We have seen family members and our local community members losing their lives.”
Luke Beardsworth, publisher of LancsLive, said the website had made the material collected by Rachel, including video, pictures and words, available to other media in the county to ensure the messages from the Covid experts spread as far as possible.
He said: “Being trusted to be the ones to come into a hospital and speak to staff at this time is something I’m grateful to the trust for and I thank them for working with us.
“The best public interest journalism means working collaboratively with other media to reach the widest audience and I’m happy we’ve been able to share our work with our friends locally.”
