COVID-19: Global pandemic responses make other diseases worse
With COVID-19 dominating the news cycle, you would be forgiven for forgetting that other diseases still exist.
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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.