Maajid Nawaz: Coronavirus will hurt UK long after it's been defeated

18 April 2020, 15:02 | Updated: 18 April 2020, 15:05

Public health will be affected years after coronavirus

Because people are afraid to use health services during coronavirus, thousands of conditions are going unchecked in the UK.

Camilla Tominey is the associate editor of the Telegraph and she joined Maajid Nawaz to discuss the aftermath of coronavirus in UK society.

The conversation centred around how the public at this moment in time aren't willing to discuss the impacts of a prolonged lockdown and the general public's reluctance to use vital services because of the pandemic.

"People have been put off going to A&E" Ms Tominay revealed. She used this as an example to say how difficult it will be for the UK to treat people with other health conditions in the future because their symptoms have gone unchecked for months prior to going to hospital. For example, someone putting off a hospital visit for a cancer check-up will end up possibly having untreated cancer for months and get to the point that the ailment is untreatable.

The associate editor of The Telegraph posed the question "how do you put it up against the harm to society" and suggested that "societally the effects of Covid-19 will stretch further than this critical peak period".

She added that the government have openly been "surprised by the public's obedience" in the exercising of social distancing.

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Maajid insisted that the points of Ms Tominay was "why we need to have this conversation".

"People that may well have felt a lump somewhere and went to the hospital to get it checked out are not doing that" he said, pointing out that these people "will suffer in a month's time or a year's time".

Calling on a more diverse debate around coronavirus legislation, he said that these points of view usually go under the media's radar because of a focus around PPE and the government's response. Maajid stated that "all these issues are to broaden out the conversation".

Accepting how quickly the narrative around coronavirus is changing, Maajid suggested that "maybe the public aren't ready to have that conversation yet" and in some time there will be a debate around how we manage the physical and mental health of people that are suffering with Covid-19.