Every day we are bombarded on the news of the infection rate due to the Covid pandemic. Something we don’t readily see are the health implications in the general population as a result of the pandemic resulting from other factors. HPC Live reports total death in United States have increased 20 such% between March and July 2020. While two thirds of these are a result of the pandemic, one third is not and represents a significant increase in the death rate within the general population in the United States.
Often in society we see direct results of an event such as the Covid pandemic. What we do not see are the reduction of individuals not going to emergency rooms which may have acute illnesses or those avoiding diagnostic tests, are those postponing other treatments and doctor visits.
I’ve spoken to several oncology specialists and they tell me they are seeing less patients and believe individuals with symptoms are simply not coming in for screening which clearly may have long-term severe implications. Also, I was told that some patients are avoiding cancer treatments because they don’t want to come into the hospital environment at this time, despite being strongly advised by their physicians to undergo cancer treatments.
Further an imaging specialist indicated the number of scans and imaging has been reduced, the likely situation is being put off, a decision which may come back with serious ramifications for some patients. Also, in speaking to an emergency room doctor they indicate visits her overall down from past years.
We need to balance the need for medical attention with the concern of infection of Covid. When somebody has severe chest pains, and aching left arm followed by a shortness of breath obviously the strong possibility of a heart attack needs to take precedence over the pandemic.
We are called by the Lord to be good stewards of our body, and we need to balance a valid concern over the possibility of Covid exposure with other severe health consequences.
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