The fact so many people with diabetes are dying of coronavirus terrifies me – especially as we know so little

When my editor alerted me to the fact that a quarter of the people who’ve died from Covid-19 in Britain had diabetes, I felt as if someone had walked over my grave.

With heart palpitations and a pasty face, my wife could have been forgiven for asking if I should check my blood sugar for hypoglycaemia had she been in the room when I heard the news.

It’s taken six weeks for me to get over the vicious little scumbag of a coronavirus that’s been killing thousands of people with my condition – with draining post-viral fatigue and a fuzzy head now all that remains.

You can probably understand why, when I saw the figures, the phrase “there but for the grace of God” sprang to mind, even though I’m basically a heathen.

It was followed by a series of complicated and graphic profanities aimed at the Conservative fruit loops who’ve been calling for a rapid lifting of the lockdown.

Then came a question (again laced with profanity): Why the (insert expletive) are people with diabetes not in the shielding group?

There was a fairly simple answer to that, which came to me when I’d calmed down a bit and had the chance to speak to someone in the field who knows what they’re talking about.

Let me explain: There are about four million people with the condition in the UK. But we are not a homogenous group.

My type of diabetes, type 1, is an autoimmune condition that usually strikes people under the age of 40. It knocks out our insulin-producing cells and turns us into human pin cushions (insulin injections, blood tests etc) thereafter. According to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, which funds research, there are about 400,000 of us.

The majority, about 90 per cent, have type 2 diabetes. There are three and a half million of them. One’s lifestyle – i.e. dietary and exercise habits – can play a role in causing it. But there are also genetic and other factors at play. While it mostly emerges after the age of 40, it can come on earlier, particularly among certain ethnicities.

Gestational diabetes affects a significant number of pregnant women. There are also several thousand people who acquire the condition through other means.

Asking all these people to completely withdraw from society for an indeterminate length of time is, obviously, going to create all sorts of problems. You can start with mental health, which is a real issue for some of us.

One theory for that fairly horrible one in four number is that the organs of people with diabetes are put under stress by dint of the variable blood sugar levels we experience.

Of course, if your control is good, the problem (you would think) should be less acute. Mine is, but I do wonder how much type 1 contributed to the prolonged experience I had with Covid-19.

Shielding may not be necessary, or even sensible, for people like me (if they haven’t had the thing). Being young could help too.

Unfortunately, those are assumptions I’m making. I’m making a lot of assumptions here because all we have is a bare number that looks awful and frightening but beyond that doesn’t do much more than tell us what we already knew: people with diabetes are at a higher risk of complications from the virus.

The need for more granular data, and for advice to be issued based on it, is therefore rather urgent.

So is the need for people to be able to access support when it comes to managing the condition in the interim.

Professor Partha Kar, NHS National speciality advisor for diabetes, tweeted that “extra measures” have been put in place to support people. I’ve not personally seen much in the way of evidence.

I’ve already had my regular, diabetes-related, eye screening cancelled by Moorfields in London, which I kind of expected but is still concerning. And I don’t have the faintest idea about how to get an intravenous blood test while maintaining social distancing in the packed waiting room I usually end up in.

Such tests, which provide information on long term blood sugars, liver function, kidney function etc, would seem to be more important than ever right now.

Here’s one thing I think I can say with certainty: until more information is available, caution should be the watchword for people with diabetes, especially given the government’s ill-thought-out “partial” reopening.

Bridget Turner, director of policy at Diabetes UK, said the government “must ensure urgently that employers take all the necessary measures to keep employees with diabetes safe, if they are expected to attend work outside the home as restrictions are eased.

“This includes ensuring the guidance for employers is clear, consistent, and focused on the safety of employees above all else.”

There’s the rub. I’ve talked to employers and I’ve talked to unions, not about diabetes but generally, and they're still calling for improvements.

So here’s an extra measure that needs to be taken as a matter of urgency while we have only assumptions to go on, and it’s not something that I’m afraid the good professor can help with.

Those people with diabetes who can’t work from home should not be forced to go into work and they should not be penalised for staying home until more is known.

The guidance Turner spoke of needs to reflect that.