The rising cancer crisis in year two of COVID-19

The fear of exposure to Covid-19 coupled with the temporary shutdown of non-emergency health services put millions of people off routine healthcare screenings. Now, in the second year of the pandemic, a wave of cancer diagnoses is revealing a new crisis.

That’s the scene painted by ProPublica in a recent report about some of the cancer patients receiving late-stage diagnoses as a result of delays in routine care during the pandemic. It’s been well documented that cancer screenings and other care services dropped off steeply during the beginning months of the pandemic. Many physician offices closed or stopped seeing patients in person altogether for a period of time. Adults delayed care, while many parents put off care for their children, as well.

Preventive cancer screenings dropped 94% in the first four months of 2020, according to ProPublica.

“Amid the damage is an untold number of cancers that went undiagnosed or untreated as patients postponed annual screenings, and as cancer clinics and hospitals suspended biopsies and chemotherapy and radiation treatments,” ProPublica reported. 

And the damage is expected to come in an excess of 100,000 cancer deaths over the next decade, according to the National Cancer Institute.

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