Remarks
Missed Doctor Visits Have Created Covid’s Shadow Health Crisis
Delayed checkups and canceled procedures will have harmful and costly long-term effects.
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During a year when many hospitals in the U.S. saw a crush of Covid-19 patients, other kinds of medical care dropped off sharply. Insulin prescriptions went unwritten, and HIV tests were untaken. Cancer care was pushed off or canceled. People having heart attacks didn’t go to the emergency room.
The cause was the pandemic: People had been told to stay home and were afraid of becoming infected. Even if they wanted to go to the doctor, in-person slots were scarce as waiting rooms were thinned out to allow for social distancing.