Elizabeth Stokoe professor of social interaction, Savannah Simons honorary associate, John Drury professor of social psychology, Susan Michie professor of health psychology, Melissa Parker professor of medical anthropology, Ann Phoenix professor of psychosocial studies et al
Stokoe E, Simons S, Drury J, Michie S, Parker M, Phoenix A et al.
What can we learn from the language of “living with covid”?
BMJ 2022; 376 :o575
doi:10.1136/bmj.o575
Ukraine, a humanitarian catastrophe made even worse by CoViD-19!
Dear Editor,
The dramatic humanitarian catastrophe affecting Ukraine and Ukranians as a consequence of the meaningless war declared by the Russian leader Vladimir Putin, should be viewed and analyzed keeping into adequate account also the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.
As a matter of fact, over 100,000 lives have been hitherto taken away by CoViD-19 in Ukraine, a Country where the anti-SARS-CoV-2 vaccine immunization level in the general population does not exceed 35%.
A likely effect of that reported above could be a relevant surge in the cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection among Ukranians, a forecast made more reliable by the frequent and prolonged, bombing-driven gathering of people (often without wearing suitable individual protection devices like face masks) in bunkers as well as in indoor spaces of subway/metro/railway stations and hospitals.
In a similar scenario, the emergence and the subsequent spread of new, highly contagious/transmissible (like the "omicron") and/or pathogenic (like the "delta") variants of concern of SARS-CoV-2 appears to be very likely and biologically plausible.
Summarizing, a (likely) drama in the context of a disastrous humanitarian crisis!
Competing interests: No competing interests