Yahoo News This simple video explains the government's plan to stop coronavirus overwhelming the NHS
A video explaining the government’s strategy to cope with coronavirus has gone viral on YouTube.
Robert Isaacs uses a bucket filled with water and a bottle with a hole in to demonstrate the reasoning behind the UK policy on coronavirus.
Having filled the bucket with water – the water representing the UK population – he then pours the fluid gradually into the bottle, illustrating the impact on NHS services.
"There's been a few people talking about the government strategy on Covid and wondering why we're not shutting everything down now," podiatrist Isaacs explains.
"Italy has done it, everyone else has done it. Why are we not doing it?
"Well, it is counterintuitive."
He goes on to explain how the NHS – the plastic bottle – is able to tolerate a slow, steady stream of water (coronavirus cases) from the bucket (the UK population).
He then demonstrates that if the water is poured all at once (representing a huge rise of coronavirus cases), the plastic bottle (the NHS) cannot cope and the water overflows.
"That's the situation we want to avoid,” he says.
"The reason we are not isolating now is that to try and stop it at this point, when there's only a matter of 500 confirmed cases, 10,000 cases total... This is the wrong time to slow it down."
Isaacs stressed to his viewers in a comment below the video that he is a “podiatrist, not an epidemiologist”, but said: “It’s a very good time to amplify the people who ARE experts.”
During the three-minute film, Isaacs concludes: “If we quarantine at this stage, it will be great and will slow the infection down for the next few months, but the bucket remains full.
"As soon as we stop the quarantine, that will pour back in and over-top – and we would have lost our ability to get people to stay at home and slow it down when we really need to."
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More than 2,281,418 people had watched the video by Monday morning.
Responding to more than 1,600 comments, Isaacs said: “Just an attempt to explain the UK government response to COVID19. Wasn't expecting it to go ‘viral’ or I'd have worn a better shirt.
“This strategy is not my Idea, I'm a podiatrist not an epidemiologist, but its a very good time to listen to, and amplify the people who ARE experts. By which I mean people like the excellent Prof Whitty and Sir Patrick Vallance (as opposed to all the overnight virologists I see in the comments).”
