FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Health experts nationwide are concerned about a predicted new post-COVID crisis that some are a calling a “second pandemic:” a wave of cancer deaths.
Broward Health Oncology Surgeon Dr. Alia Abdulla said the dramatic drop in routine screenings over the past year has led to dire predictions.
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“According to the National Cancer Institute, there is likely going to be an excess 10,000 deaths over the next 10 years likely because of delay in diagnosis of cancer,” Abdulla said.
She said cancer screenings, which are the key to catching the disease in its earliest and most treatable stages, have dropped 90% during the pandemic.
Abdulla said it’s a wakeup call for Americans to resume routine screenings to protect their health and longevity.
In other health news, researchers from the U.K. are reporting that the two top current vaccines against COVID-19 are showing effectiveness against the Indian variant of the virus.
Two doses of Pfizer’s vaccine show nearly 88% efficacy against the variant while two doses of AstraZeneca’s showed nearly 60% efficacy.
Vaccine effectiveness after one dose was similarly low for both, which was around 33%.
Because the study was observational it did not take into account differences in populations that received each vaccine.