“Please sir, can I have some more?” A Quantitative study into the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on People with Specific Dietary Requirements

The first cases of a new SARS virus SARS-cov-2 were identified in the Chinese city of Wuhan at the end of 2019 and its subsequent spread across the globe lead the World Health organisation to declare a pandemic on the 11th March 2020. In order to help control the spread of the virus, the UK government introduced its first national lockdown on the 23rd March 2020. The aim of the lockdown was to reduce the transmission of the virus, thus reducing the number of cases, which would in turn reduce the pressure on the National Health Service (NHS) by having fewer people hospitalised and limiting the number of fatalities due to COVID-19. This lockdown closed all non-essential businesses and only allowed citizens to leave their home for essential purposes, such as food shopping and an hour of exercise every day. Whilst undoubtedly this lockdown was successful in reducing the number of COVID-19 cases in the country, it did in itself give rise to a number of significant Public Health issues: mental health services saw an increase in service users as a result of increased social isolation, depression and people worrying about food insecurity and food poverty. In particular, issues arising from food insecurities and food poverty were exasperated due to school closures and home schooling which initially meant there was no access to the free school meal system. However, within this there were significant hidden risks for those with specific dietary requirements, especially in the early stages of COVID-19 pandemic