THE UK would be "finished" if another killer virus hits because of the spread of misinformation that Covid was a hoax, a top doctor has claimed.
David Chung, a consultant in emergency medicine with NHS Scotland, admitted he finds the claims "very upsetting" as he saw first hand the devastation the virus caused.
He said: "Five years on, so much has changed. I think everyone's memories of what went on has changed as well. Getting the vaccine when we did mitigated a lot of the mortality of Covid. A lot of people have forgotten that.
"You can argue for or against lockdown but if we didn't have lockdown, we would have had a lot more deaths in the pre-vaccine era."
Dr Chung said the advent of the vaccine meant people began to get the virus but not die. That changed the public's viewpoint of the virus and they began to question the need to lockdown.
He said: "The lockdown was right but over the past five years people have been influenced to think it was a mistake, that Covid wasn't that bad.
"It has fed into some of the political narrative. I remember commenting at the time that you can't beat a disease like this with politics but now people think we can and we did.
"I think if we had another pandemic tomorrow, it would be a disaster because nobody would believe it existed and they wouldn't comply with any health stuff because they would all think it was a hoax.
"At the start, we did save a lot of lives but through the lens of five years I don't think people would be convinced again now that it was the right thing to do; infact I am sure people would say it was the wrong thing.
"It is very difficult for all of us who were there to hear all this on social media.
But scientifically, it was the right thing to do. I have had three or four taxi rides where I have been berated by a taxi driver about Covid and lockdown and how it is all a hoax.
"At one point, I had to tell one, 'Just stop because I have to leave.
"This guy was saying, 'You have been brainwashed'. I was like, 'I was there, I watched people I know die.
How dare you talk to me like that?' "For everybody who was there, it is very upsetting to have to listen to this.
"Real people are telling you what you went through is not real and that the people you saw die is just made up.
"If another pandemic comes, we are finished because these kinds of people are not going to follow any rules.
image [https://cdn.magzter.com/1583517504/1742610876/articles/SxdGDWpqKXMmNCb5tSsys/2224711174.jpg]
"People telling you you are lying when you talk about Covid is very, very difficult to deal with." For Dr Chung, it is a question of not if we should have locked down but when. Asked if we should have locked down earlier, he is in no doubt: "Oh God, yes. Absolutely.
"The signal for me was when the Chinese Communist Party is letting you know they have a pandemic, then something terrible is on the way.
"If you knew anything about how things operate in China... everything is kept quiet. If things are so bad you're having to let the world see what is going on, something major's happening.
"I think there was an awful lot of complacency in the UK." And while warning signs from China w...
David Chung, a consultant in emergency medicine with NHS Scotland, admitted he finds the claims "very upsetting" as he saw first hand the devastation the virus caused.
He said: "Five years on, so much has changed. I think everyone's memories of what went on has changed as well. Getting the vaccine when we did mitigated a lot of the mortality of Covid. A lot of people have forgotten that.
"You can argue for or against lockdown but if we didn't have lockdown, we would have had a lot more deaths in the pre-vaccine era."
Dr Chung said the advent of the vaccine meant people began to get the virus but not die. That changed the public's viewpoint of the virus and they began to question the need to lockdown.
He said: "The lockdown was right but over the past five years people have been influenced to think it was a mistake, that Covid wasn't that bad.
"It has fed into some of the political narrative. I remember commenting at the time that you can't beat a disease like this with politics but now people think we can and we did.
"I think if we had another pandemic tomorrow, it would be a disaster because nobody would believe it existed and they wouldn't comply with any health stuff because they would all think it was a hoax.
"At the start, we did save a lot of lives but through the lens of five years I don't think people would be convinced again now that it was the right thing to do; infact I am sure people would say it was the wrong thing.
"It is very difficult for all of us who were there to hear all this on social media.
But scientifically, it was the right thing to do. I have had three or four taxi rides where I have been berated by a taxi driver about Covid and lockdown and how it is all a hoax.
"At one point, I had to tell one, 'Just stop because I have to leave.
"This guy was saying, 'You have been brainwashed'. I was like, 'I was there, I watched people I know die.
How dare you talk to me like that?' "For everybody who was there, it is very upsetting to have to listen to this.
"Real people are telling you what you went through is not real and that the people you saw die is just made up.
"If another pandemic comes, we are finished because these kinds of people are not going to follow any rules.
image [https://cdn.magzter.com/1583517504/1742610876/articles/SxdGDWpqKXMmNCb5tSsys/2224711174.jpg]
"People telling you you are lying when you talk about Covid is very, very difficult to deal with." For Dr Chung, it is a question of not if we should have locked down but when. Asked if we should have locked down earlier, he is in no doubt: "Oh God, yes. Absolutely.
"The signal for me was when the Chinese Communist Party is letting you know they have a pandemic, then something terrible is on the way.
"If you knew anything about how things operate in China... everything is kept quiet. If things are so bad you're having to let the world see what is going on, something major's happening.
"I think there was an awful lot of complacency in the UK." And while warning signs from China w...
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Daily Record (Digital) - 1 Issue, March 22, 2025