Lockdown didn’t save lives from cancer

Everyone understood the government message in March 2020 to stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives. Yet the lives that we knew were being saved were ones from Covid-19. Anything more long-term than daily figures never registered. The concept of other causes of death – most devastatingly cancer – were secondary concerns. We may be about to see the consequences of this Covid solipsism.

The recent cross-party parliamentary report “Catch Up With Cancer – The Way Forward” showed that UK lockdowns had resulted in a staggering drop in cancer treatment. There were 350,000 fewer urgent cancer referrals in 2020, and 40,000 fewer cancer diagnoses, compared to 2019. These delays to diagnosis will lead to worse cancer survival rates, which were already mediocre compared to many Western countries.

Politicians, and plenty of scientists, like to talk as if there was only ever one option. But there was an alternative. In Sweden, where lockdown was less strict than the UK, there is evidence that patients with prostate cancer had their treatment protected during the first wave.