Professor: Cancer Death Toll to Exceed COVID-19 Due to Disruption

Written by P J Watson on April 24, 2020. Posted in Current News

Families of cancer patients whose loved ones are not able to receive treatment in hospitals because of the coronavirus pandemic have slammed videos which show nurses dancing as “disrespectful.”

Scores of videos of health workers performing the dances have flooded Tik-Tok and other social media platforms in recent weeks despite Brits being told by the government that the COVID-19 outbreak would overwhelm NHS hospitals.

While many have defended the videos as a way for stressed out nurses and doctors to let off steam, others have called them tasteless due to the fact that many cancer patients are currently unable to access treatment.

As we highlighted earlier, Professor Richard Sullivan warns that excess cancer deaths will exceed total coronavirus deaths over the next five years because,

“Cancer screening services have stopped, which means we will miss our chance to catch many cancers when they are treatable and curable, such as cervical, bowel and breast.”

People are not visiting hospitals for treatment of a number of serious conditions because they are fearful of coronavirus and health authorities are recommending people only visit if their condition is dire.

This advice was given in expectation of COVID-19 overwhelming staff, but acute care hospital beds in the UK are four times emptier than normal and some of the overspill hospitals built to handle extra coronavirus patients are barely being used.

This situation has left many angered at the sight of NHS nurses performing frivolous dances for social media consumption.

I’m seriously pissed off seeing NHS staff dancing and fooling around. My brother is working 14-hour days in an ICU in London treating Covid-19 patients. My sister is still performing surgery and is separated from her son. Cancer patients are having treatment and scans cancelled.

— AmyinLondon (@AmyinLondon) April 22, 2020

“I’m seriously pissed off seeing NHS staff dancing and fooling around,” said one Twitter user. “My brother is working 14-hour days in an ICU in London treating Covid-19 patients.”

“My sister is still performing surgery and is separated from her son. Cancer patients are having treatment and scans cancelled.”

“I’ve seen it from several different hospitals, it’s so disrespectful when there are so many ill and dying. Imagine someone who has just lost a loved one seeing these dumb videos.”

Families of NHS patients criticise staff for online dancing videos https://t.co/CXXHYRxKCg

— Jeremy Vine (@theJeremyVine) April 23, 2020

“There are far too many of these dancing and pratting about clips of NHS staff,” commented another respondent.

“I was led to believe they are run off their feet, and to think thousands maybe millions of people go out and clap for them.”

“I’m sure they’re working hard, but the timing of dancing clips isn’t really now.”

“I’m a doctor, and I’m really sick of this constant praise and virtue signaling for healthcare workers,” said another respondent.

“Hospitals are empty due to lack of elective cases and severe drop in trauma and emergency cases. And yet we keep hearing about this “Hospitals being overwhelmed” nonsense! Yet healthcare workers somehow find time, despite being so “overwhelmed”, to do their cringy Tik-Tok videos. A lot of Hospitals are actually struggling to stay open, because their main sources of income are from elective cases and admissions.”

As we previously highlighted, one of the dancing videos which showed nurses performing the haka was subsequently removed because critics said it was an example of “cultural appropriation.”