Post-Acute Sequelae of COVID-19 and Polypharmacy: If You Think There’s Too Much Polypharmacy Now, Just Wait

Abstract

The editor-in-chief of the Lancet, Richard Horton, recently called the intersection of the COVID-19 pandemic with the epidemic of increasing chronic disease burden an “acute-on-chronic health emergency”.[1] The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington describes the rising worldwide chronic disease burden and public health failures as “fueling” the COVID-19 pandemic.[1, 2] Prior to the pandemic, polypharmacy per capita was steadily increasing over decades due to many factors, but especially because of increased chronic disease burden among the general population worldwide.[3, 4]