The Thin End

The coronavirus shut down has made us all more aware of the problems of loneliness.  Loneliness itself can be a cause of mental health problems, of morbidity and of premature death.   A new study in the United States shows the impact of loneliness on the end of life experience.  In a study of Americans over age 50 years who died between 2004 and 2014, individuals who were characterized as lonely based on survey results were burdened by more symptoms and received more intense end-of-life care compared with non-lonely people. In the 2,896-participant study, which is published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, one-third of adults were lonely. In addition to having an increased likelihood of experiencing troublesome symptoms at the end of life, isolated individuals were more likely to use life support in the last 2 years of life (35.5% versus 29.4%) and more likely to die in a nursing home (18.4% versus 14.2%) than non-lonely individuals. Dr Nauz...

The new restrictions announced by the UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, are thought to be vital.  But is it going to be a case of too little, too late? The prospect, unless more is done to protect those in the population who are vulnerable to the virus, is a catastrophic number of cases that would overwhelm the NHS. An  analysis by researchers at University College London,  Cambridge University, and Health Data Research, suggests that the mitigation measures already in place would not be sufficient to avoid tens of thousands of deaths caused by COVID-19 virus. Using data on underlying conditions and age in the population, the analysis suggests that without stringent measures to prevent spread, the virus will bring about between 35,000 to 70,000 deaths. These are shocking figures to contemplate - a picture of health services being overwhelmed, itself leading to further non-COVID-19 deaths. The government have identified just 1.5 million with particular under...

Shocked into action by the potential mortality from the coronavirus pandemic, governments around the world are acting to release huge sums of money into their economies.  Today, the UK chancellor announced that he was making available over £330 bn to support businesses during the crisis.  This is by far the biggest ever peace-time intervention in the economy.  It is right that governments should respond.  Millions of lives depend on them doing so.  But it should make us think about whether we have been getting our priorities right in the past, and whether we are now doing so.   Poverty kills just as relentlessly as does the coronavirus.  It attacks the most vulnerable.  Yet, the government invests too little in preventing it.  This has been particularly so over the last decade, where both child poverty and pensioner poverty have increased.  Poverty comes in different ways.  A report two years ago showed...