Protecting Doctors Aged Greater than 50 Years from COVID-19

Dear Editor, Health, in one recent study(1), Glynn raised the concern about the need of protecting worker aged 60-69 year from COVID-19. In addition to general population, we think this issue is important within healthcare system. However, we wonder whether this estimation can be applied in the healthcare system. To answer this question, we used the same model (2, 3), to estimate the distribution of death according to the doctors’ age group. First, we found that 40% and 30% of deaths are in the 70+ and 60- 69 year group. Second, after excluding the doctors aged more than 70 years, it estimated that 48% of deaths developed in the 60-69- year age group (Table-1). Both of these findings were consistent with Glynn’s findings and suggest that doctors aged over 60 years should be protected. Moreover, we also noted that 31.4% of deaths was estimated to occur in the 50-59-year groups in the group aged less than 70 years. This ratio was higher in the analysis of general population by Glynn, in which 25% of death developed in the group aged 50-59 years. Overall, it suggested that doctors aged greater than 50 years should need protection within the hospital in this COVID-19 pandemic. To avoid overload of healthcare system, which was associated the poor outcome of critical COVID-19 patients and prevent the death of aged physicians, appropriate allocation of physicians’ works according the specificity and age (<50 vs ≥50 years) should be conducted to enhance effectiveness of healthcare resource.