This week, the first round of people began receiving a vaccine against COVID-19 in the United States. That offers some hope that we’ll finally be able to get the pandemic under control. Some people may take the arrival of a vaccine to mean that they can wait a few more months for that mammogram or colonoscopy they have been putting off since the coronavirus hit U.S. shores. But it will be months before everyone can get vaccinated. And postponing routine care can have a very real and deadly cost.

In the early days of the pandemic, people abruptly stopped going to the doctor. Visits to ambulatory care providers dropped nearly 60% in the final week of March compared to the first week of the month, according to research from the Commonwealth Fund.