Covid Scotland: People boasting about breaking the rules are putting extra pressure on NHS as patients wait for vital operations – Steve Cardownie

Well, that’s another subdued Hogmanay celebration over and all that’s left is to look forward to the day when we will get back to some kind of normality and we can get on with our lives.

Wearing a mask helps reduce the pressure on the NHS (Picture: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

However the NHS needs to get back on track and the current restrictions need to be supported.

As someone who received cancer treatment before the onset of Covid, I can empathise with people who have seen their own treatment delayed, sometimes with devastating consequences.

Thousands of planned operations have had to be either postponed or cancelled and any measures introduced by the Scottish government to offset the potential strain on the NHS should be seen for what they are – a genuine attempt to deal with a pandemic that has already devastated so many lives.

To hear some people talk, you would think that Nicola Sturgeon had nothing better to do than act out of sheer devilment and drum up ideas to deliberately mess up people’s lives and threaten the economy.

There is no doubt that these restrictions are bound to have a greater effect on some than on others and that is indeed unfortunate, but they are wide ranging because they need to be.

You can still see people walking through shops without wearing a mask, the same on public transport. Customers in bars walking around the premises almost daring someone to take them to task for not wearing a mask! People actually boasting that they will not follow the rules “as it is an infringement of their personal freedom” – and still people wait for their life-changing operation.

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