CAN WE PUSH THAT APPOINTMENT?

AT FIRST THEY TOLD US not to come. Early in the pandemic, health authorities steered us clear of doctors and hospitals to help flatten the curve and relieve ICUs.

We may have listened well. Emergency-room visits for non-Covid reasons tanked by 42 percent between January and May 2020. And by the middle of the year, roughly 41 percent of U.S. adults had avoided some form of medical care, according to a study in . The figures were even higher for Black and Hispanic adults. Of everyone who skipped or couldn’t get care for a serious problem, 57 percent took a health