More than 600 doctors from around the country signed onto a letter Tuesday urging President Donald Trump to end lockdowns in America. They described the widespread lockdown orders as a “mass casualty incident” and warning of “exponentially growing health consequences.”
In the letter obtained by Fox News, the doctors describe several of the unintended negative consequences of the shutdown orders, which include patients missing check-ups with doctors that could detect cancer and other serious conditions. There is an increase in alcohol and substance abuse, and financial instability leading to poverty and poor health.
“Millions of Americans are already [in critical condition],” the letter argued. “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. Suicide hotline phone calls have increased 600%.
“We are alarmed at what appears to be the lack of consideration for the future health of our patients,” the doctors added, noting real-life examples they have witnessed in their practices. “The downstream health effects … are being massively under-estimated and under-reported. This is an order of magnitude error.”
The doctors fear the patients are going unnoticed.
“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 letter stated.
Four of the undersigned doctors told Fox News the indirect effects outweigh the direct results of COV.
“The very initial argument … which sounded reasonable three months ago, is that in order to limit the overwhelmed patient flux into hospitals that would prevent adequate care, we needed to spread out the infections and thus the deaths in specific locales that could become hotspots, particularly New York City … It was a valid argument at the beginning based on the models that were given,” said Dr. Mark McDonald, a psychiatrist. “What we’ve seen now over the last three months is that no city — none, zero — outside of New York has even been significantly stressed.”
States are opening too slowly. This is a disaster, a medical and economic disaster. Blue states are especially dragging their feet.
Open up with social distancing guidelines NOW!
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