Save us from comorbidity, please

THE EDITOR: Before covid19 arrived on the scene 18 months ago, I am betting that not many had heard the word comorbidity. I would also bet that very few unvaccinated, or vaccinated for that matter, still understand what the word means.

It is therefore a mystery to me why it is still used every day instead of explaining it in more layman's terms.

For example, would it not be better to say that eight people died today, three were diabetic and unvaccinated, two were males in their sixties and one was a female in her seventies, two were males in their 70s who suffered from hypertension, another was an unvaccinated 55-year-old female, one was a male in his forties having received one vaccination shot and, finally, one was a previously healthy 30-year-old male who was unvaccinated.

And please, no use of words like comorbidity that most don’t understand or relate to.

I am not sure how this random additional information can even begin to resemble “the giving out of confidential patient information.”

There is no way to trace any individual with this additional information.

What I can see, however, is that divulging such information will begin to make the serious outcome of getting covid19 to be much more realistic for many people. And who knows, it may start to dawn on more people that getting that covid19 vaccine isn’t that much different to getting a polio shot and other vaccines before entering primary school.

I think it is worth a try.

ANTHONY AGOSTINI

Port of Spain