So how ill is Boris...?

Well, according to the BBC he's sitting up in bed but he's now on day 12 or 13 which is the critical phase of Covid-19 infection...  For the curious the Lancet provides this flow diagram ...

...of the various possible "paths to death" (or not).  The BBC are very quick to say that he's not on ventilation but it sounds most likely he's having non-invasive ventilation via a CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure machine)...

...these are usually used for people who suffer from sleep apnea and can be nasal or full face... but he doesn't yet need mechanical ventilation ... the most extreme type of which is ECMO (ExtraCorporeal Membrane Oxygenation) which looks like this...

...in between the above and the bottom diagrams are various other types of less invasive ventilation techniques that can be deployed.  The next couple of days will be the most crucial ... he will either turn the corner naturally or end up on more invasive ventilation.

But even if Boris does not end up at this extreme end of the invasive ventilation scale... which is usually the province of premature babies and the people possibly nearing the end of their life ... the road to recovery to quote the man himself "is hard" (see the Guardian)  ... so should we perhaps be preparing for him to stand down sooner rather than later...?


Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is that when the media says Boris is "receiving oxygen but
does not require ventilator" ...this is slightly deceptive language ... if you're receiving oxygen you're being ventilated by definition.  It's just not highly invasive ECMO ventilation requiring sedation.