Editorial The minister played with the partial benefits and fears associated with long-term coronavirus disease

Editorial|Editorial

Last Judging by the weekly official communication, a new and creepy public disease is emerging in Finland, a cluster of diseases consisting of the long-term consequences of the coronavirus. It is rumored that up to half of those suffering from coronary heart disease could suffer and it could lead to major economic losses.

Minister of Family and Basic Services Krista Kiuru (sd) presented a report commissioned by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health last Friday as the government prepared to consider whether schools should start as a distance school after the Christmas holidays.

When you look at what can really be deduced from the report, and when you combine this information with the situation on Friday, it becomes clear that the policy traded by the Ministry and Kiuru as a responsible choice was irresponsible gambling with partial benefits and fears.

“Long-term coronavirus disease is already very common in Finland,” Kiuru said at the press conference without explanation. “The threat is that the largest or one of the largest new groups of public diseases will be born in Finland,” Kiuru explained again without any valid evidence.

Kiuru said that 10 to 30 percent of the approximately 40,000 people who had coronary heart disease last week could develop long-term coronary heart disease. He said thousands of children are getting a disease these weeks that is turning into a long-lasting corona. The minister also suspected that a minimum of 150 children a week could get long covid infection with these infection readings. “The chills are going away,” Kiuru tinted his message later in the press conference.

Corona situation is serious, but the feelings and interpretations of the Minister to the public were far more frightening than might be inferred from the report, and the report is well worth criticizing.

The first problem is that the report’s views on long covid are not constructed from a sample of all sufferers. Based on the interpretations, the most important are studies that followed serious cases that required hospitalization. During the omicron variant, we no longer have a proper idea of ​​even how many actually suffer from corona. There is even less information about the long-term consequences of Omikron.

In addition, all long-term symptoms were bundled – at the latest in the presentation of Kiuru – under their most serious forms. Exhaustion, difficulty breathing, and difficulty concentrating were mentioned with concerned voices.

However, in the report, any self-reported by the sufferer of any self-assessed outcome will be counted as evidence of long covid. And the ailment reported is equated with a serious one.

The consequence of the coronavirus has not even been properly distinguished from any other disease that occurred after or before the disease. Comparison groups are also usually missing. When asked about long-term symptoms, symptomatic ones respond more often than asymptomatic ones. Among those receiving intensive care, it is difficult to distinguish which symptom is due to coronavirus and which is for some other reason.

The consequences of long covid in lost good years of life were calculated in the report up to decades. In reality, we have no information on whether the symptoms will last that long.

Report it is a little difficult to say anything about the rationale for the conclusions at all, as the rationale is in some places incomplete and there are no references. The summary states that there will be long-term effects on everyone else. Later percentages are also used in the text.

However, the biggest problem was in the interpretation of the report. The report was intentionally over-interpreted because Kiuru and the ministry needed an over-interpretation for power-political reasons. The mode of action raises chills.

The editorials are HS’s statements on a topical issue. The writings are prepared by HS’s editorial staff and reflect the magazine principle.