Bowel cancer keeps striking earlier. Why does our cutoff start at 58?

Half of bowel cancers hit Māori in their 50s. Yet govt raised their screening age from 50 to 58. It doesn't make sense.

Let’s pretend you wanted to have a semblance of equity between Māori and non-Māori: you’d make bowel screening start at 50 for Māori and 60 for non-Māori. (It’s not pretend, by the way . . . those numbers are proportionate in real life.)

What then would you call delaying screening until 58 for Māori?

Whatever you call it, it will result in lots of missed bowel cancers for Maori. And deaths. Preventable suffering, lost productivity.

https://e-tangata.co.nz/comment-and-analysis/bowel-screening-change-totally-unethical/

Perhaps you’d even call it a lie. Why’d Luxon promise so much, and then not deliver?

Or more to the point, why did he not make an equivalently public campaign promise to help property investors? He didn’t run on a promise to help landlords (despite a landlord being National’s largest single donor at $200,000). Nonetheless he did quietly and quickly deliver the goods (under urgency). So very much taxpayer money, ($2.9 billion). Prioritising the constituents that matter.

It almost seems like it’s intentional.

Someone really should start a tally of the estimated number of lives that will be lost to health policy decisions like this. Adding in the estimates of the needless loss of life that will be caused by govt killing the Smokefree anti-smoking laws, the numbers become too large to ignore.

If we already have a govt that can make these kinds of decisions of corporate profits over patients’ lives, where will be if David Seymour’s Regulatory Standards Bill passes, I’d ask?

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While we’re on topic of bowel cancer, a quick tidbit on screening ages:

Cancers that hit younger are often more aggressive. With worse outcomes if discovere late. And with bowel cancer especially, picking it up early (through screening, not once the patient presents with symptoms) is often the difference between life and death.

We really should be screening from age 45.

It should be a priority, because the age of bowel cancer diagnoses is getting younger and younger. This is in contrast to many other cancers. It’s a real worry.

We’re way behind many other countries, including Australia, where bowel screening starts at 45.

You might hear govt politicians say they really wanted to lower the age below 58, but just couldn’t afford it.

Every time you hear that, remind them they found a cool 200 million to give to the multinational Gas corporations (to help them explore for gas wells). And 216 million for Philip Morris cigarette company to help them sell more heated tobacco products.

It’s criminal, no?

Am I isolated in thinking this disgusting?

It seems government is only there to maximise corporate profits, not to help New Zealanders live better, safer, healthier, more fulfilled and productive lives. Our government’s priorities are clear.

—Gary Payinda

Meanwhile, applause for these good folks directly protesting a rotten govt. We need direct action, not just keystrokes. The point is not lost on me. They’re doing the hard yards. Well done and thank you from all of us.