Covid- 19 and the Cancer Crisis
Before the pandemic we weren’t bombarded weekly with the grim statistics reflecting the number of deaths.
But due to our newly acquired health awareness and the realisation that health data matters, an in depth look is long overdue if we’d like to figure what kills us.
That is what are the main causes of death in the UK compared with the world and for example with the deaths causes in the United States.
Our world in data statistics show that before the pandemic hit the number one cause of death globally was cardiovascular disease, followed by cancer causing about half of the numbers of deaths.
It came as a shock to realise that UK has more deaths caused by cancer than cardiovascular disease. That is in spite of skyrocketing rates of obesity and diabetes, cancer kills more people annually than heart disease.
In the country of Big Mac, milk shakes and doughnuts there were less cancer deaths out of the total number of deaths clearly the number one killer was and still is cardiovascular disease.
How come annually around 170.000 number of Brits succumb to cancer?
Another shocking reality was that UK had the worst cancer survival rates in the EU, that is a person unlucky to be diagnosed with cancer let’s say in Hungary, Estonia or Romania will survive on average longer than an unlucky UK cancer patient.
The NHS statistics – all before the pandemic hit indicate that approximately 1000 people are diagnosed with cancer daily.
365.000 people in the UK are diagnosed with cancer annually.
But then Covid-19 arrived, and Stay Home=Save Lives=Protect the NHS became the mantra.
Cancer treatments were stopped, operations cancelled, people could not see their GP to have a look at a mole, lump or to be sent for scans.
Even today, for the majority of us at least, trying to see a GP or be referred to a consultant or sent for a scan resembles Mission Impossible.
A complete breakdown of the healthcare system will be reflected in catastrophic numbers of deaths due to untreated and undiagnosed cancer cases.
Patients that had their cancer treatment stopped sadly passed away in horrendous pain. It happens every day.
And all this is happening while Cancer Research UK and World Health Organisation are sounding the alarm and warning about an explosion of cancer cases.
‘One in 2 people born after 1960 will get cancer in their lifetime’
‘The number of cancer cases is projected to rise by more than 40% to around 514,000 new cases per year in 2035’
All the scientists, the Sage ‘health care experts’, Public Health England, and NHS have decided cancer care is not a priority. Before the pandemic close to 170.000 people died of cancer annually, and 365.000 people are newly diagnosed with cancer each year.
As highlighted in an article in the Times: Britain was forced to make trade-offs in how we contained two killers — cancer and Covid-19. We got it badly wrong, says Karol Sikora
Professor Karol Sikora, a former head of the World Health Organisation’s cancer programme, has become the country’s most prominent critic of the lockdown’s impact on NHS care for other diseases. The government became obsessed by Covid-19 deaths, says the senior oncologist. Its tunnel vision created a cancer crisis.
There were hundreds of thousand less cancer referrals compared to 2019.
Yes it’s not a typo. These delays to diagnosis will lead to worse cancer survival rates when before the pandemic UK already was faring worse than all European countries in terms of survival rates
Professor Gordon Wishart, Visting Professor of Cancer Surgery at Anglia Ruskin University and Chief Medical Officer at Check4Cancer, in an article for the Spectator compares what happens in the UK with other countries that have not stopped cancer care in order to ‘protect’ from the Covid-19 virus.
‘There are more than 5 million people waiting to start NHS treatment. The divide between those who can and can’t afford private healthcare has seldom been starker. In the last 20 years, much effort and funding has improved cancer waiting times. UK cancer survival rates have improved, but at a reduced rate to many European countries. We had made substantial improvements in screening, diagnosis and treatment. But many of the gains achieved over years have been reversed in months.
Covid-19 is not the only killer. Cancer continues to kill around 166,000 people annually in “normal years” – one shudders at the thought of the preventable deaths that will have been caused by lockdowns.’
Professor Karol Sikora, a former head of the World Health Organisation’s cancer programme, has become the country’s most prominent critic of the lockdown’s impact on NHS care for other diseases. ‘The government became obsessed by Covid-19 deaths, says the senior oncologist. Its tunnel vision created a cancer crisis.’
Stay Home = Protect the NHS = Save lives – according to numerous health experts- has proven myopic on a catastrophic scale.
Cancer is now the real pandemic that sadly will affect every family for years to come.
Professor Sikora’s advice: Don’t get cancer now!
Cancer prevention is the way forward.