By Tom Addison, Policy Manager, The Physiological Society, @TEJAddison
The House of Commons’ Science & Technology Committee’s announcement of an inquiry into UK Science, Research and Technology Capability and Influence in Global Disease Outbreaks was welcomed with open socially–distanced arms by The Physiological Society back in July.
With the Commons in recess at the end of July and throughout August, the Committee’s final report is unlikely to be published before the end of September at the earliest. However, The Physiological Society has used this opportunity to demonstrate the contribution of discipline and our Members to sharing new and emerging evidence about COVID-19, its management and long-term consequences.
The Physiological Society has mobilised physiologists around the world to provide operational support to frontline healthcare workers in the fight against COVID-19. In collaboration with the Intensive Care Society, it has established a website called ‘Questions from the Front Line’. This has allowed an expert advisory panel to offer the most up-to-date physiological insight to answer questions and observations posed by medics treating people who are currently infected with the COVID-19 virus, as well as offering links to the most relevant physiological research. In the early days of the pandemic, The Society also worked to explain and dispel rumours about how the public can respond to the coronavirus to protect their health from erroneous or unproven approaches (such as the use of ibruprofen and vitamin C) and vitamin C)
Advice sought from frontline healthcare professionals was in areas as varied as shielding during pregnancy, gastrointestinal symptoms, intubation, low oxygen levels in the blood and co-morbidities such as diabetes. In addition, physiologists’ advice was sought for PPE research and development. As a result, the advice has been applied and practical, not just mechanistic and theoretical, and reinforces the crucial role that physiology has in underpinning how healthcare professionals treat disease and support people to live better, for longer in both health and disease.
COVID-19 has also made clear the crucial role that physiology plays in meeting the demands of novel diseases. It also shows the importance of embedding physiological understanding into clinical environments, so we need to ensure we have the capacity to connect physiologists, responsible for discovering more about the human body, and healthcare professionals, responsible for treating patients in the future, for the next outbreak. responsible for discovering more about the human body, and healthcare professionals, responsible for treating patients in the future, for the next outbreak.
In this respect, The Physiological Society’s Physiological Objectives for Medical Students is a timely piece of work which we will be building on in the coming months to strengthen physiology’s contribution to meeting the challenges posed by COVID-19.
Beyond responding to the ‘first spike’ of the outbreak, The Physiological Society has been encouraging the Government to give considerable thought to the long-term physical and mental consequences of both the coronavirus and the UK’s lockdown response and how it can better prepare the population to respond to future outbreaks and pandemics.
Age remains the single best indicator of likely mortality from COVID-19. As the ONS notes, ‘The age-specific mortality rate due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) increased significantly in each age group, starting from ages 35 to 39 years in males and ages 40 to 44 years in females.1.
Similarly, the most common pre-existing conditions recorded for those dying of COVID-19 were dementia, frailty, pneumonia, diabetes, hypertension, COPD and urinary tract system diseases, all diseases that are associated with age-related decline.
Epidemiological data are important to recognise who is at highest risk and to reduce the risk of transmission. However, when little is known about the disease beyond similarities with other coronaviruses, understanding the mechanisms of the virus and how it affects human physiology is crucial both for decision-making during the initial phases of the pandemic and to improve outcomes for patients afterwards.
As such, ensuring that the whole of the UK is encouraged to take control of their health as much as possible to improve their healthy life expectancy will not only help to fight further outbreaks of respiratory infections such as COVID-19, it will have the added benefit of furthering the Government’s own long-term health and wellbeing strategies.
Please note that all views expressed on The Physiological Society’s blog reflect those of the author(s) and not of The Society.