During the pandemic, people deferred medical care. We’ve all heard about how the number of patients hospitalized for heart attacks plummeted. The rates of people having heart attacks didn’t decline, just those hospitalized. Many people died of Covid-19 indirectly by avoiding emergency rooms, doctor’s offices, hospitals and screening for cancer.
Here is a projection from the National Cancer Institute on potential effects of the pandemic on breast and colon cancer mortality.
It is a projection. Only time will tell if it’s true. It may be a long, lingering effect of the pandemic.
