Compressor stall wrote:
And if you are trying to peddle the argument that lockdowns lead to an increase in undiagnosed illnesses - what a barrowload of dried donkey's testicles. With COVID rife through a community, healthy people (or those who are not sure they are well -the undiagnosed in your argument) are going to stay far and wide from any medical clinic / hospital as it will be likely overflowing with coughing and spluttering patients and asymptomatic infected health care workers. PPE shortages, no elective surgeries to relieve the burden, I could go on.
I've been reading and re-reading this, and trying to work out how the subsequent argument makes the point.
I have had 2 close relatives die this year. One through disease that could have at least been treated (rather than cured) more successfully with an early diagnosis. Not to mention the isolation they went through while in hospital.
Its always awkward to use personal experience in a wider setting but this is clearly a common enough situation for the sample size to be statistically significant.
As for TB, yes the USA has done very well with keeping it under control, so let's look instead at India:
79,000 TB deaths in 2019 vs 126,000 covid deaths.
You hardly hear about it.