COVID-19 unmasks what cancer patients have long known: The world needs a better and more equitable health system

CNN publishes an opinion piece by HRH Princess Dina Mired of Jordan, President of UICC, on what the coronavirus pandemic has revealed about the inequalities and challenges facing cancer care.

Words cannot express how we all are beyond indebted to the health workers around the world. You are putting your lives at risk for the sake of saving all of us. You have given a new, profound meaning to the term "the ultimate sacrifice."

Within the cancer community, health providers and patients alike have undoubtedly suffered the worst of the coronavirus's double burden. We all know that cancer does not wait for COVID-19 to end. Its destructive work is genetically mapped out with precision. In fact, cancer thrives when the system is broken.

As a mother of a cancer survivor, I know only too well the worry of an infection for an immunosuppressed cancer patient. To add to that the anguish of having essential services for diagnosis or treatment canceled or delayed, when we all know that timing is crucial when it comes to cancer, is beyond imaginable.

Read the full opinion piece on CNN.

Tags HRH Princess Dina Mired CNN Equity

Last update

Tuesday 08 June 2021

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