Coronavirus is now as deadly as ebola killing more than a third of Brits sick enough to need hospital treatment.
Scientists have tracked a third of all UK hospital patients for the largest and most detailed study of Covid-19 cases in Europe.
In an outspoken intervention the experts criticised young men still “meeting in the park and sharing a four-pack of beer”.
The UK’s Covid-19 hospital death rate was broadly the same as that seen in the ebola outbreak in the mid-2000s which devastated west Africa.
Despite higher standards of healthcare provided by the NHS the study of 17,000 Covid-19 patients at 166 hospitals showed that between 35% and 40% died.
Chief investigator Prof Calum Semple, of Liverpool University, said: “It’s a common misconception even today that Covid is just a bad dose of the flu.
“Once you are sick enough to go to hospital Covid is as dangerous as ebola. People don’t get this.”
Speaking to journalists during an online briefing unveiling the findings chief investigator Prof Semple delivered a stinging criticism of “millennial man”
He added: “Still we see isolated egregious examples of selfishness where people think it’s ok to meet in the park and share a four-pack of beer. I’ve seen it happen.
“There is a particular group of younger people taking an ‘I’m alright Jack, this doesn’t bother me, why should I be worried’ attitude.
“They don’t understand that they are just as likely to catch it and transmit it, and that will affect the rest of society.
“People need to hear this and get it in to their heads. The reason the Government is keen to keep people at home until the outbreak quietens down is that this is an incredibly dangerous disease, and it’s also dangerous for the healthcare workers who are likely to catch it in hospital.”
The research was carried out by the International Severe Acute Respiratory and Emerging Infection Consortium (ISARIC).
Co-author and practicing doctor Dr Annemarie Docherty, of Edinburgh University, said: “All we can offer in intensive care is organ support while they are getting better.
“For a large number of people in hospital this is just not appropriate when people are unlikely to improve.
“So then we need to look at, is this something that these people want?
“This is in the context of, if you come to intensive care and you are ventilated you are unable to communicate with your family and rates of delirium are significantly higher.
“If there is no aspiration to recovery I don’t think we are doing these people any favours by bringing them to intensive care.”
The findings come as the true UK death toll from Covid-19 is only just emerging.
Care home deaths are started to be reported daily but until yesterday only hospital deaths were being counted towards the official total of around 22,000.
Some fear that when including non-hospital deaths the number of UK victims is double that.
The UK is now looking like it may have the highest deaths of any nation in Europe.
The findings covering hospital cases from February 6 to April 18 confirmed obese people are more likely to die from Covid-19.
A cough and fever are known to be the main two “red flag” symptoms linked to Covid-19.
However the research revealed that patients suffer from a range of other symptoms including ear pain, muscle aches, stomach ache, vomiting and diarrhoea.
Dr Docherty added: “The diagnostic criteria have generally been coughs, shortness of breath and fever.
“Potentially patients who present with syndromes other than this are then not getting tested.”
