Transcript of video
Well, it is hard to predict the future. But one line of your extensive research is the history and the directions of cardiovascular care. Dr. David S. Jones, MD. That should probably form a basis for another fascinating discussion. But one of the topics that you mentioned in the article in New England Journal of Medicine about the current COVID Coronavirus epidemic is that stigmatization is their very recurrent and toxic companion to every epidemic. Still, it also leads to misplaced priorities that ignore epidemics with similar if not more extensive death rates that go on every day, unnoticed and ignored. Can you put the COVID-19 Coronavirus pandemic, in the context of other diseases that kill even more patients they live that also have essentially pandemic qualities? Yeah, it is essential to have some sense of the overall disease context. What are all the problems that we face. Where does COVID stack up? Dr. Anton Titov, MD. Dr. David S. Jones, MD. I’m a bit wary now because any answer I give today may sound naive in a week or so because the numbers are changing very quickly with that caveat. Medical second opinion is important. Far, since roughly New Year’s COVID has killed around 5000 patients in China, so it is 5000 deaths over roughly three months in China. Well. Dr. David S. Jones, MD. That has happened in China; heart disease has killed 5000 patients a day. Medical second opinion is important. You are talking about 5000 deaths, in total from COVID versus 5000 deaths a day from heart disease and China, mostly from heart attacks. In Italy, I have been trying to figure out what a similar comparison is. It is not quite that stark. Medical second opinion is important. As best as I can tell, in Italy now there are several hundred deaths a day from Cova 200 or 300 patients every day. This is a lot of deaths. But they are about 500 deaths a day in Italy from heart disease. Medical second opinion is important. COVID is likely the second or third leading cause of death in Italy at the moment. What about the United States The United States has 650,000 In heart disease deaths a year. Dr. David S. Jones, MD. That is about 700 1700 and 70 heart attack deaths a day in this country. COVID has killed 217 so far. Medical second opinion is important. At the moment, if you were to look at the past day, week, month, two months. The heart disease epidemic is orders of magnitude worse than what COVID is doing. Yet we will shut down the economy and wiped out a third of the value of the stock market to prevent COVID. Well, why? Dr. Anton Titov, MD. Well, Why is there the fear of what COVID could do? Dr. Anton Titov, MD. There is not much fear about heart disease; we expect we are resigned to the fact that heart disease will kill about 600,000 patients every year in this country. It is been doing that now since the 1950s. The number of deaths a year has been relatively stable. The death rate is dropping. The population is growing. But now we are accustomed to losing 600,000 patients a year from heart disease. Dr. David S. Jones, MD. We are not accustomed to losing anyone from COVID. It is a new problem. There is this fear that COVID might kill millions of patients. Dr. David S. Jones, MD. We need to do everything possible now to prevent that from happening. Dr. David S. Jones, MD. That might be wise. But it is also important to ask the question, Well, why aren’t we doing everything possible to prevent the 600,000 deaths from heart disease? Dr. Anton Titov, MD. Dr. David S. Jones, MD. We know we are not we could ban cigarettes, we have chosen not to. There are 70,000 deaths a year, roughly from opioids. Dr. David S. Jones, MD. We are doing a lot to prevent that now. But again, our response to the opioid epidemic was tremendously delayed. Dr. David S. Jones, MD. We tolerate some number of deaths a year from alcohol from firearms, there are many, many causes of death. Dr. David S. Jones, MD. That are currently orders of magnitude higher than COVID mortality that we tolerate that we ignore, for the most part, we just see it as a part of life the cost of living the way that we live. Yet we see this tremendous response globally to COVID. Is it because of the novelty? Dr. Anton Titov, MD. Is it because of the fear of what it could be? Dr. Anton Titov, MD. Isn’t something else it is tough to fathom at this point how you can explain The scale of the response. The actual severity of the problem here is a very powerful force here. Well. Dr. David S. Jones, MD. That is that is certainly true. Dr. David S. Jones, MD. That again, it is very important to put it in the context of many chronic diseases. This are noncommunicable but that have correct risks of having the communicable disease because of our behavioral patterns.