COVID-19 Pandemic-Revealed Consistencies and Inconsistencies in Healthcare: A Medical and Organizational View

Abstract

The circumstances of the Coronavirus disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus (COVID-19) pandemic have had a significant impact on global and national developments, affecting the existence of society in all its expressions, as well as the lives of people themselves. In the context of the pandemic, increased attention has been focused on acute measures, but the ending of the pandemic is expected as a resolution of the related healthcare problems. However, there are several indicators that the COVID-19 pandemic might induce long-term consequences for individual and public health. Some of the consequences are inferred and predictable, but there are also areas of medicine that have been indirectly affected by the pandemic, and these consequences have not yet been sufficiently explored. This study is focused on drawing attention to some of the COVID-19 pandemic consistencies and the pandemic-revealed inconsistencies in healthcare. Content analysis and statistical analysis were applied to achieve the aim of the study. The main findings of the study address chronic disease burden (particularly, myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS)), healthcare governance and organizational issues, and the synergy between health policy perspectives and innovative solutions in practice. The study provides insight into the particular healthcare issues affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, such as the increase in mortality in some diagnoses besides COVID-19 and the possible emergence of a new type of resistance—vaccine-resistance—contemporaneously supporting the identification of the tendencies and currently unnoticed indirect consistencies and inconsistencies revealed by the pandemic.

Research on the Equity and Influencing Factors of Medical and Health Resources Allocation in the Context of COVID-19: A Case of Taiyuan, China

“…However, in recent years, natural disasters caused by climate change and various epidemics have exerted a great impact on global development, and have also sent a warning to human society to achieve the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as scheduled [ 2 ]. In particular, COVID-19, which has killed millions of people across 215 countries, poses a huge threat to the health of people around the world [ 3 , 4 , 5 ]. The impact of the COVID-19 on the economic order and social activities has been unprecedented.…”

Excess Mortality among Physicians and Dentists during COVID-19 in Italy: A Cross-Sectional Study Related to a High-Risk Territory

“…Therefore, it is correct to state that the area of afference of the physicians and dentists included in this study had one of the highest rates of diffusion and severity of COVID-19. The excess mortality could also have been influenced by the overload of the healthcare system, [ 36 , 50 ] which could have led to a reduction in the level of care for both patients with COVID-19 and those with other acute or chronic diseases [ 9 , 51 , 52 , 53 ].…”

The Advantages of an Integrative Approach in the Primary Healthcare of Post-COVID-19 and ME/CFS Patients

“…The authors, in one of the previous studies on the COVID-19 pandemic consistencies in healthcare [3], revealed that since October 2020, several articles have reported myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) as a potentially post-COVID-19-associated disease [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]. The literature reviews on the potential causal interaction between post-COVID-19 and ME/CFS also appeared in the following period [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19].…”