We have all seen memes like this swarming our social media feeds. Coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, has caused populations to stay away from each other for life, putting countries and towns on lockdown and bringing lives to a halt.
LONDON, ENGLAND - MARCH 23: The Tate Britain gallery illuminated in yellow lights on March 23, 2021, in London, England. Marie Curie Cancer Charity has organized a National Day of Reflection on the first anniversary of the coronavirus lockdown for the UK to come together and remember the 126,000 people who have died from Covid-19. A minute's silence will be held at midday, and buildings across the country will be lit yellow.
It's easy to lose hope and dwell on the negative consequences of any case, mainly when we're fighting a global pandemic as a group.
There is a high for any low, and it is confirmed that even this present situation has a silver lining. Here are three COVID-19 lockdown effects you should take note of.
Death Toll
The first and most obvious question is whether or not lockdowns have killed lives. The simple answer is nope - at least for the time being.
If lockdowns and COVID-19 treatments were linked to an acute rise in mortality, we would expect to see more EXCESS deaths (i.e., deaths from any cause) in areas with more stringent interventions than those without, independent of COVID-19 cases.
This research, titled "The World Mortality Dataset: Tracking Excess Mortality Across Countries During the COVID-19 Pandemic," proves the exact opposite. There is still an abundance of death in countries with many COVID-19 cases, but not in places with no COVID-19 cases, even though they have highly stringent limits.
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The nation of Australia is an excellent example. Despite some of the world's most stringent COVID-19 initiatives, including one of the world's longest single lockdowns in the Australian state of Victoria, there was no increase in total mortality. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, mortality declined rather than increased due to these severe constraints.
Health-Care Service Disruptions
Unfortunately, there is a lot of evidence that diagnostics for chronic health conditions, notably cancer screening services, were postponed or even halted during the pandemic.
According to a study published in the Lancet, missing screening and diagnostic visits are linked to a significant rise in cancer mortality in the coming years. Similarly, there is a report that people stopped seeking heart disease treatment after the pandemic, even though they had serious problems requiring medical attention.
In the Lancet study titled "The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Cancer Deaths Due to Delays in Diagnosis in England, UK: A National, Population-Based, Modelling Study," the researchers claimed that people in the UK skipped cancer scans because medical professionals were too preoccupied with COVID-19 patients. The paper on heart disease suggested that undiagnosed COVID-19, rather than people refusing treatment, was a possible source of elevated cardiovascular mortality.
These effects cannot be attributed solely to COVID-19 treatments. For example, in Australia, ED attendance was the lowest during lockdowns. Still, it began to decline before the government even announced measures, and it stayed low for months after authorities lifted restrictions. People in the UK follow a similar trend: resisting A&E the most during lockdowns but not returning in the usual numbers until they were allowed to leave.
Global Health Toll
United Nations estimated that 1.4 million people lost out on tuberculosis care during COVID-19, indicating that these services have been adversely affected in the last 12 months.
The difficulty is, once again, separating the nuances of government decisions from the chaos caused by the pandemic itself. Many of the countries with the highest rates of tuberculosis diagnosis still lack long-term lockdowns. In Indonesia, for example, tuberculosis screening decreased the most throughout the pandemic.
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