I saw something recently that made my blood boil.
It was an interview with an oncologist who was saying that he’s finally seeing patients referred to him after the lockdown started and that because these people have a six-month delay in diagnosis and treatment for suspected cancers, their outcomes are much, much worse. They are having to perform mastectomies and colostomies that had they started treating these patients months ago, they probably could have avoided. Other patients have metastasized in that time period.
In our rush to fight COVID, our governments condemned countless cancer patients to disfigurement or death.
If there is one good thing to say about a national healthcare system, it’s easier to get real-time data, rather than piecemeal like in the US.
From CTV News:
‘Collateral damage’: Doctors worry patients diagnosed with more advanced cancers because of delays
Back in March, Bill Gardner’s doctor wanted him tested for a sore throat, trouble swallowing and a slightly altered voice, but couldn’t get an appointment because of delays from the coronavirus pandemic.
It wasn’t until Gardner coughed up blood four months later that he got checked out. He had Stage 2 oropharyngeal cancer.
“To some degree, the cancer is bigger than it would have been found earlier and so I’m going to have to have more intensive radiation,” Gardner told CTV News.
“Some people who might have gotten early treatment that could save their lives might not have their lives saved,” Gardner said. “Some metastases from those cancers that might have been prevented by earlier treatment will happen and more demanding — and frankly toxic — treatments will have to be used.”
From the Globe and Mail:
54% of Canadian cancer patients have had tests or treatments delayed as result of COVID-19, survey says
More than 50 per cent of Canadians affected by cancer have had treatments and tests cancelled or delayed as a result of COVID-19 precautions, according to survey from the Canadian Cancer Survivor Network.
The national internet survey of 1,243 Canadians between May 22 and June 10, conducted by Leger for the CCSN, assessed disruptions in cancer care as a result of COVID-19. The survey included 960 Canadians diagnosed with cancer, as well as caregivers and patients in the prediagnosis stage, and found that 54 per cent of respondents had tests and treatments postponed or cancelled, including three-quarters of prediagnosis or recently diagnosed patients.
From Sky News:
Coronavirus: Husband says wife’s brain cancer progressed after her chemotherapy was stopped during lockdown
The husband of a woman with brain cancer said government has “failed” to look after people with illnesses other than COVID-19.
Emma Jenkinson, 31, had her chemotherapy treatment paused for three months over lockdown.
The heartbroken pair, who are parents to four children aged 11, nine, four and two, have now found out the disease has progressed and is likely resistant to further chemo.
From Health Data Research UK:
The Big C isn’t COVID-19 – it’s cancer
‘Britain’s Cancer Crisis’, which aired on BBC One in early July, followed the stories of several people living with cancer during the pandemic. The show highlights the shocking and horrific reality of how the pandemic is affecting people with cancer across the UK, with delayed diagnoses and cancelled treatment potentially causing anywhere between 7,000 and 18,000 additional deaths from the disease in the most likely scenario over the coming year.
From The Times:
Cancer patients to pay heavy price for checks lost to coronavirus lockdown
Five-year survival rates are expected to fall due to delays in getting urgent referrals or treatment at the height of the pandemic
Thousands of lives may be lost to cancer because 250,000 patients were not referred to hospital for urgent checks, says a report to be published this week.
Family doctors made 339,242 urgent cancer referrals in England between April and June, down from 594,060 in the same period last year — a drop of 43%.
The fall in the number of people seeing their GP with symptoms, and in referrals for scans, is resulting in cancers being spotted too late, according to the research by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) and Carnall Farrar, a healthcare management consultancy.
The result is that Britain could reverse a decade of progress in tackling the disease with survival rates predicted to slump, the study found.
There is no reason to think it was any different in the US.
If anything, our hyperpartisan governments over panicked even more.
Most hospitals in the US were not overrun, far from it, they were so underutilized that they had furloughs and layoffs due to budget failures.
Giving everyone the benefit of the doubt, that might have been one thing during the “15 days to flatten the curve,” but once that was over, hospitals should have started taking in patients again, not continuing their delays for months afterwards.
I think much of this panic was driven by the NYC based media reporting on NYC hospitalization rates and making it seem like the entire country was New York, and politicians reacted accordingly.
Huntsville Hospital shut down for COVID, even though it is a nearly 900-bed hospital that had at its peak 100 COVID patients at any given time.
This is something that hits very close to home for me. My dad died of cancer. I had cancer. When they saw the spot on my x-ray, I was in surgery 48 hours later. If I was forced to wait six months, I’d be dead. Just dead. Flat fucking dead.
I know this because the brother of my mother’s best friend developed the same kind of cancer I did. He wasn’t diagnosed until he became symptomatic and he died six months later.
What the government, bureaucrats, and some media personalities have done to cancer patients because of COIVD is a crime against humanity. They needlessly sacrificed countless cancer patients for an ineffectual response to a virus with a 99.7% survivability.
In a just world, when all this is over, there should be a Numreburg-like trial for these people and they should be made to swing by the neck for the people with cancer they killed while hyping COVID panic porn.
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Trump won Florida by 112,911 votes even after losing bad in Miami-Dade which happens to be the most populated county of the State. I was truly expecting a close win for Biden which would have nulled any advantage he could have had in the rest of the state. (update: I forgot to say that Miami Dade has not voted for a Republican President since George Herbert Bush 44 years ago. )
