NHS 'cover your mouth and nose' UK-wide update as H3N2 strain spreads

Sly Saint

Sly Saint

Senior Member (Voting Rights)
The NHS has issued an urgent UK-wide 'stay at home' alert as winter viruses, including the H3N2 strain, are spreading rapidly across the UK. In a recent X post, the health service also urged people to 'cover your nose and mouth' and to 'avoid contact with other people'.

Flu season has arrived sooner and is more intense this year. In the latest UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) weekly report, it says influenza activity has increased and is now circulating at medium levels. It adds that emergency department (ED) attendances for influenza-like-illness (ILI) increased.
"The number of influenza-confirmed acute respiratory infection (ARI) incidents increased," it continued. "Of influenza viruses subtyped at the UKHSA Respiratory Virus Unit, the majority were A(H3N2)."

The H3N2 strain is currently the most dominant flu strain circulating in the UK during the 2025/2026 flu season. According to the UKHSA, a specific subtype of H3N2, known as subclade K, is responsible for the majority of recent cases, placing a significant strain on health services.

Besides using a tissue to cover your mouth and nose when you cough or sneeze, wearing a face mask can help significantly stop the flu and other respiratory viruses from spreading. They do this by blocking infectious droplets, which protects both the person wearing the mask and others around them, especially if someone is sick or in crowded places like hospitals.



Masks serve as a barrier that keeps germs from moving through the air when you cough, sneeze, or talk. This makes them a valuable tool for maintaining everyone's health during flu season, according to guidance from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA).

On X, the NHS said this morning (December 8): "If you have flu, there are some things you can do to help get better more quickly. Flu will often get better on its own, but it can make some people seriously ill. It's important to get the flu vaccine if you're eligible."
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TO little to late . I am in to my third week waiting for coughing to go away . Wonderful care workers refusing to wear mask or take time of when sick brought this gift to me and my frail 81 year old mother . shame it is not possible to sue for what i see as a complete disregard of others health.
 
I do wonder how long its going to take for the Inquest (and science generally) of airborne spread to finally get into the NHS. They seem impervous to the evidence at the moment and are still issuing surgical masks, which everyone knows is not PPE and does not meet the health and safety standard for being protective against viruses and yet they keep doing it. They also don't seem to have learnt you have to take the societal measures before all the people start turning up in hospital, that is the event a week or so after the infections were spread, controlling after the impact is already occurring doesn't work.
 
BrightCandle said:
I do wonder how long its going to take for the Inquest (and science generally) of airborne spread to finally get into the NHS. They seem impervous to the evidence at the moment and are still issuing surgical masks, which everyone knows is not PPE and does not meet the health and safety standard for being protective against viruses and yet they keep doing it. They also don't seem to have learnt you have to take the societal measures before all the people start turning up in hospital, that is the event a week or so after the infections were spread, controlling after the impact is already occurring doesn't work.
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Very doubtful this changes any time soon. Every health care system has adopted defiance of reality, public health has regressed to the time of miasma theory, just not wanting airborne infections to be real, except even worse because ventilation is not part of the toolkit anymore and physics no longer apply to reality.

Most physicians seem content with the "infections are good for you" dogma, and the profession is under such tight control that no one will be rocking any boats. Their employment depends on it and everyone knows it. It's always safe to be wrong, and being right always goes punished.

Like most of our institutions, it just only serves power now. I guess people aren't really noticing but we don't really live in free democratic societies serving the common good. Not that this was ever fully true but now the institutions don't even bother pretending anymore. Corruption has spread everywhere, it's everything now.
 
When you feel a sneeze coming on, you might not have time to get a tissue. Sneezing or coughing into your elbow is better if you aren't wearing a mask.

Every time I see someone coughing or sneezing into their hands in public, I'm really glad I'm wearing a mask.
 
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rvallee said:
Very doubtful this changes any time soon. Every health care system has adopted defiance of reality, public health has regressed to the time of miasma theory, just not wanting airborne infections to be real, except even worse because ventilation is not part of the toolkit anymore and physics no longer apply to reality.
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Even in the miasma theory period they did things about the bad smells like wearing plague masks and replacing the bad smelling water. We are in the age of "well actually infections are good for you" while people die phase, its truly a complete rejection of science. ME patients have been dealing with a rejection of reality and science in medicine for much longer, its never actually been an industry that was anything but vaguely based on science sometimes anyway. Its like one of those TV shows "based on a true story".
 
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