I can tell you unequivocally that, at least here in Ohio, chemo procedures are still going on. My mom is going 3 days every 3 weeks, but at least in her case it's at a specialty center not directly connected to the hospital, so the risk is at least slightly mitigated by not being in direct contact with patients coming in with COVID specific symptoms. The bigger issue for her is that they don't have any of the scanning equipment at the site, so for her to be able to go in and have a new chest scan done (she has small cell lung cancer) she WOULD have to go to the actual hospital, which her doctor is trying to hold off on doing as long as possible.
Are you guys sure there's really that many unreported deaths? This thing takes an average of 3 weeks to kill someone. We don't have enough testing, but with 80% being negative I would imagine they're catching the vast majority. I'm sure unreported deaths are out there, I'm just not seeing why it would be quite that many.
The doctors are now talking about deaths that were not initially attributed to COVID. For instance, heart attacks and strokes. In the past few months they have increased compared to the norm and the average age has dropped significantly, and they are now seeing links to COVID. So deaths that were just "heart attack and/or stroke" are now being reclassified as "COVID probable". A number of these heart attacks and strokes are looking like they would only happen due to COVID, and the severe clotting that it causes. https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/04/24/strokes-coronavirus-young-patients/ If this thing has been around for months, then this has been going on for months.
FYI, I'm going on info I've seen from the Canadian healthcare system, not stuff that is linked in that article... it's privileged data and can't be shared. The numbers are pretty significant, enough that there are major alerts going out to heart/stroke practitioners to educate them on the signs of COVID as it pertains to heart attacks and strokes.
I didn't realize that reading protester signs and calling them out for their nonsense was something that was only appropriate when it was left wing protesters. When it is right wing protesters then it is unbecoming. I understand now. I'll do my best to not call fucking idiots fucking idiots in the future. Also thanks for the whataboutism at the end there. We should totally do nothing because of some other unrelated serious issue. Thankfully when we start talking about opiate deaths you can chime in about the COVID response to argue for doing nothing.
I hadn't heard much about the related heart conditions. Especially with the early reporting that makes sense for how a lot would have been missed.
I’ve never heard of any medical institution consider chemo or radiation therapy as being elective. Even a friend’s mother who needed a hip replacement just had one last week.
I mean, they can get risk getting COVID-19 by receiving chemo or die a painful death from cancer. Seems like a risk worth taking.
The comparison of a single day, a holiday shutdown, to a months-long closure is unbalanced at best. Equating signs from a few people to the thousands of people nation-wide who want out and want back to work is unbalanced at best. Inserting politics into this is absurd and clearly you don't know better. Finally, with your last few sentences you construct the straw man argument a third grader would be proud of. Assuming I or anyone else is saying it is do what we are doing now or do nothing is intellectually dishonest or foolish. If you are unable to hold two conflicting opinions in mind at the same time then I'm unsure where to go from here. Other than I want you to know - It is ok to question authority. It's ok. You don't have to defend the media and the authorities, you can have your own opinion. They are big boys and girls they can defend themselves and it's important to remember they have been wrong before and will be wrong again in the future; assuming they nailed this one is a bad assumption.
This is political. Trump made it political from day one. I see now reason why I should assume that the idiots he encourages are being apolitical. I see no evidence that they have a logical or altruistic argument against the current response to COVID all I see is a bunch of people who either can't understand the consequences of their actions or who don't care about the consequences of their actions. And me complimenting you for your fantastic use of a whataboutism to deflect from one serious issue to another serious issue that you won't actually bother doing anything about isn't a strawman. You can read about a strawman argument here on the wikipedia. That way if you think it is wrong you can always edit the article to confirm your biases.
A family friend was scheduled for cancer surgery and once COVID hit was told "get it done now, or we have to wait until COVID passes." He was thinking about waiting, but his wife called him a moron, told him he was getting the surgery, and then banned the kids from the house for the duration of his post-op recovery. Treatments for more advanced cancers are ongoing I'm assuming, but there are definitely some treatments that are getting delayed.
I also live in Ohio. My Dad fell while hiking a few weeks ago and broke his shoulder. They replaced his shoulder three days later. I don’t know anyone with cancer. But there is no way they are putting it off.
According to Russia's official numbers, more doctors have died from falling out of windows than have died from COVID. That's not suspicious...
Not that surprising when every man, woman, and child in the country drinks a gallon of moonshine vodka every day. I think it's a law there or something.
Mine has also improved because I suffer from severe social anxiety. Working at home and my husband working at home eleviates all social expectations because I am high risk (diabetes and asthma). With no one expecting anything from me I have managed to eliminate all the social anxiety and we go literally no where (groceries are delivered) so I don't have anxiety about contracting the virus. The enormous black circles under my eyes are gone for the first time in as long as I can remember since I actually sleep now knowing I don't have to go to work or social events.