I wonder, after all is said and done if the measures we take to mitigate the risk of COVID-19 might end up being a zero-sum game.
There were some figures in the news (these are always difficult to interpret) but it was suggested that 5,000 people might die of Cancer due to late diagnosis and late treatment.
The NHS have said that this is not the case, but I know for a fact that it is locally to us here so why would it not be true nationally?
Anecdotally my wife has seen ore children admitted directly to ITU with late diagnosed childhood cancers over the past little while than she’s ever known before, perhaps a coincidence perhaps not.
We know that there are 14,000 additional deaths which are not related to COVID-19 in the numbers so far and that was not far off 50% of the COVID deaths.
Perhaps not lethal initially but the mental health and social deprivation problems that this will produce will undoubtedly produce significantly more deaths.
The recession alone will be able to be measured in thousands.
Not a criticism, just an observation.
I remember back when we had panic (and it was panic) about vCJD.
We moved to disposable instruments for tonsillectomies and people died from haemorrhage.
Still and to this day there is no reported transmission of vCJD from a healthcare professional to a patient, but we kill them out of a need to try to protect them just the same.
The financial and environmental damage of HTM 01-05 (the cross-infection regulations for vCJD) was catastrophic.
The environmental damage alone for disposable instruments was disastrous.
The same is true for COVID.
The environmental catastrophe that the increased PPE around the world requires (much of which is made in Wuhan) is awful.
The container ships that are buzzing back and forth, filled with FFP3 masks and the rest will cause untold damage to the world.
Leadership is required and pragmatic leadership is essential to allow us to shake down the cause and effect.
Blog Post Number - 2378
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