August 7, 2020

expert reaction to SAGE document ‘Direct and indirect impacts of COVID-19 on excess deaths and morbidity, 15 July 2020’

The government Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) have released their latest set of advice and documents including one on ‘Direct and indirect impacts of COVID-19 on excess deaths and morbidity, 15 July 2020’

Dr Jason Oke, Senior Statistician at the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, said:

“It is likely that reduced emergency care in hospitals and the postponement or cancellation of elective operations by the NHS in preparation for COVID-19 led directly to a substantial number of non COVID-19 deaths, and many years of life lost during the height of the pandemic.  It is less clear however whether not taking these actions would have resulted in a better outcome.  It is possible that if services were run as normal we might have seen fewer non-COVID-19 deaths but a higher number of COVID-19 deaths through people becoming infected whilst being in hospital.  There is also a question of whether some reduced capacity was inevitable with many NHS staff absent from work through sickness or self-isolation during the pandemic.”

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dhsconsgadho-direct-and-indirect-impacts-of-covid-19-on-excess-deaths-and-morbidity-15-july-2020

All our previous output on this subject can be seen at this weblink:

www.sciencemediacentre.org/tag/covid-19

Declared interests

None received.