In a New York Times op-ed today, Cleveland Clinic CEO and President Tom Mihaljevic, M.D., and Mayo Clinic President and CEO Gianrico Farrugia, M.D., write: “More than 100,000 Americans have died from Covid-19. Beyond those deaths are other casualties of the pandemic — Americans seriously ill with other ailments who avoided care because they feared contracting the coronavirus at hospitals and clinics. The toll from their deaths may be close to the toll from Covid-19.”
Drs. Mihaljevic and Farrugia point to “sizable decreases” in new cancer diagnoses (45 percent) and reports of heart attacks (38 percent) and strokes (30 percent).
“To prevent further harm, people with serious, complex and acute illnesses must now return to the doctor for care,” they write, adding, “The novel coronavirus will not go away soon, but its systemic side effects of fear and deferred care must.”
To read the entire op-ed, click here: