According to scientists from the Snow Initiative, thousands of victims during the COVID-19 pandemic die unnecessarily and not only because of the virus.
“Our country is not coping with the epidemic,” said immunologist Zdeněk Hel, who works at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Alabama. He stated that solutions should be more effective and less compromisable because the outcome of the current measures might postpone the recovery.
“Every day when we are in a loose state, we will pay for several days of quarantine after the New Year,” added Milan Kubek, president of the Czech Medical Chamber.
The lives of more than 9500 people were shortened; however, the COVID-19 wasn’t the only reason for that. As reported by demographer Dagmar Dzúrová from the Faculty of Science of Charles University, half of the deaths might occur for different reasons, such as neglected preventive care.
According to Jindřich Vobořil, who focuses on prevention in social services, nearly 40 percent of the COVID-19 victims in the western world are elders who live in nursing homes. About two to four percent of the population lives there.
Based on the research, the average life expectancy of the Czech men will decrease by 1.15 years and for women – for almost one year. “In the last 50 years, our life expectancy has not decreased,” Dzúrová added.
Hel added that the state puts high pressure on the healthcare system which will remain there for months. He adds that the vaccine will be helpful but all the tools against the COVID-19, such as testing, were provided even before that.
The Snow Initiative is the Czech part of the worldwide John Snow Memorandum, which provides scientific evidence for the protection against the COVID-19 pandemic. Hel added that the Initiative is supposed to fight the misinformation in the scientific field and bring back the trust to the scientific sources.
