"It's making me very angry now that people are laying the blame on the virus. It's not the virus, it's people."
A senior health professional has delivered a stern warning to people who do not wear masks or practice social distancing, saying that they have "blood on their hands" as ICU wards become overrun.
Professor of Intensive Care Medicine at University College London Hugh Montgomery told BBC Radio 5 Live's Rachel Burden about the severity of the situation in many ICU wards at the moment.
https://twitter.com/bbc5live/status/1344543533173190663
"It's making me very angry now that people are laying the blame on the virus," he told Burden, expressing his frustration at how the disease is spreading. "It's not the virus, it's people."
"People are not washing their hands, they are not keeping two metres distance, they are not wearing their masks."
"I've seen delivery people in this hospital in the last two days with no mask on, as if there's nothing happening here."
"This isn't the virus, it is people. People are not doing what they should be doing."
"I am absolutely not an apologist for this or any other government, but the problem here, I can't reiterate enough, is people."
"50% or more of people will not even know they have this virus. They'll have such [a] mild disease that they might not even know they have symptoms and that they are spreading it."
"But this is very highly contagious. Each person can spread this to four to five people in an enclosed space, and each of those can spread it to four to five people. So one person can infect hundreds of thousands of people."
Professor Montgomery urged people not to flaunt the rules and gather for New Years Eve.
"I'm really sorry, I'm fed up to the back teeth of this virus too, and I want to see my friends and family and hug someone, but we can't."
"Anyone who listening to this who doesn’t wear their mask and behaves like this – they have blood on their hands. They are spreading this virus, other people will spread it, and people will die."
