We are living through an age of untold suffering. Over 500,000 people have died from coronavirus in the U.S. alone, over 120,000 in the UK, and over two million worldwide.
With COVID-19 dominating the news cycle, you would be forgiven for forgetting that other diseases still exist. And yet we know full well that diseases don’t stop just because one is hogging all the limelight.
There have been plenty of reports on the troubling cost of the pandemic and associated lockdowns or shelter-in-place orders on people’s mental health. For example, it has had a profound effect on those living with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Studies from Europe show that between a third and half of those suffering from OCD had their symptoms worsen during the pandemic.
Young adults seem to have been particularly affected by the emotional burdens of isolation and insecurity. In a recent survey, conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the U.S., 63% of 18-to-24-year-olds reported symptoms of anxiety or depression, with 25 per cent reporting increased substance use to deal with stress, and 25 per cent saying they’d seriously considered suicide.
Crucially, these issues won’t abate as soon as the pandemic is over. Even when the crisis recedes, Shekar Saxena of the Harvard School of Public Health suggests that 10% of these young people will have to live with the long-lasting effects of the mental illnesses they are currently enduring.
The damage done by the pandemic to mental health has already attracted well-deserved attention. It has highlighted the importance of looking beyond coronavirus deaths to assess the success of global pandemic responses. Cancer tells a similar, and equally distressing, story.
Cancer care in the pandemic
Throughout 2020, hospitals across the UK, U.S. and Europe cancelled or postponed urgent cancer operations because they could not cope with the rising number of desperately ill coronavirus patients….
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