600 doctors write Trump, warn of counter-effects of coronavirus shutdown on US citizens

About 600 medical doctors, on behalf of thousands of doctors, have written President Donald Trump of the United States warning of the counter-effects of the shutdown of America because of coronavirus.

The medical practitioners in a letter dated May 19, 2020, indicated that thousands of physicians in all specialties and from all States were writing to express their alarm over the exponentially growing negative health consequences of the national shutdown.

They stated that in medical terms, the shutdown was a mass casualty incident.

The doctors highlighted that during a mass casualty incident, victims are immediately triaged to black, red, yellow, or green. “The first group, triage level black includes those who require too many resources to save during a mass crisis. The red group has severe injuries that are survivable with treatment, the yellow group has serious injuries that are not immediately life threatening and the green group has minor injuries.”

The doctors explained that “the red group receives highest priority. The next priority is to ensure that the other two groups do not deteriorate a level.” They observed that decades of research have shown that by strictly following this algorithm, they save the maximum number of lives.

The doctors raised alarm that millions of Americans are already at triage level red. “These include 150,000 Americans per month who would  have had a new cancer detected through routine screening that hasn’t happened, millions who have missed routine dental care to fix problems strongly linked to heart disease/death, and preventable cases of stroke, heart attack, and child abuse,” they stated; alerting that suicide hotline phone calls have increased 600%.

The doctors pointed out that tens of millions of American citizens are at triage level yellow. They warned: “liquor sales have increased 300-600%, cigarettes sales have increased, rent has gone unpaid, family relationships have become frayed, and millions of well-child check-ups have been missed.”

Hundreds of millions were identified to be at triage level green. They said that these are people who currently are solvent, but at risk should economic conditions worsen. “Poverty and financial uncertainty are closely linked to poor health,” the doctors warned.

They noted that a continued shutdown means hundreds of millions of Americans downgrade a level.

The presented the following case studies which were cited as examples from their practices.

Advertisement

The doctors in the letter narrated that Patient E.S. is a mother with two children whose office job was reduced to part-time and whose husband was furloughed. They decried that the father is drinking more, the mother is depressed and not managing her diabetes well, and the children are barely doing any schoolwork.

In other case studies and examples the doctors narrated:

“Patient A.F. has chronic but previously stable health conditions. Her elective hip replacement was delayed, which caused her to become nearly sedentary, resulting in a pulmonary embolism in April.

“Patient R.T. is an elderly nursing home patient, who had a small stroke in early March but was expected to make a nearly complete recovery. Since the shutdown, he has had no physical or speech therapy, and had no visitors. He has lost weight and is deteriorating rather than making progress.

“Patient S.O. is a college freshman who cannot return to normal life, school, and friendships. He risks depression, alcohol abuse, drug abuse, trauma, and future financial uncertainty.”

The doctors in the letter signed by Simone Gold, M.D., J.D. and 500 physicians, declared: “We are alarmed at what appears to be the lack of consideration for the future health of our patients. The downstream health effects of deteriorating a level are being massively under-estimated and under-reported. This is an order of magnitude error.”

They protested: “It is impossible to overstate the short, medium and long-term harm to people’s health with a continued shutdown. Losing a job is one of life’s most stressful events, and the effect on a person’s health is not lessened because it also has happened to 30 million other people.

“Keeping schools and universities closed is incalculably detrimental for children, teenagers, and young adults for decades to come.

“The millions of casualties of a continued shutdown will be hiding in plain sight, but they will be called alcoholism, homelessness, suicide, heart attack, stroke, or kidney failure. “In youths it will be called financial instability, unemployment, despair, drug addiction, unplanned pregnancies, poverty and abuse.”

The doctors also observed that because the harm is diffuse, there are those who hold that it does not exist; saying, “We, the undersigned, know otherwise.

“Please let us know if we may be of assistance.”

Advertisement