For the past several months, American society has been largely shut down and people locked down due to the coronavirus. “Stay home, stay away from people” has been the mantra of mainstream media and government officials.
Why were the shutdowns and lockdowns necessary? In short, they say, to save your life and the lives of others. But did they really do that? Or did they also enable and exacerbate dozens of other human detriments in tens of millions of Americans, like abuses, addictions and even deaths from drinking, obesity, domestic violence, violent crimes, opioid overdoses and suicides?
There’s something being gravely overlooked and underreported by nearly everyone from mainstream media to our government representatives, including those officials in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as well as the World Health Organization. It is the consequences and collateral damage from extended quarantining and lockdowns. You will likely be surprised and even mortified by the statistics you’ll shortly read.
Of course, a single death among the 175,000-plus dead from COVID-19 is nothing short of a tragedy. My wife, Gena, and I mourn every one of them, and we pray for the families and loved ones who have experienced such devastating loss. We also continue to encourage people to follow COVID-19 precautions, especially those in harder hit areas.
In addition, the personal economic and unemployment costs and losses to tens upon tens of millions of Americans have been nothing short of tragic personal tsunamis as well. I don’t need to remind you of those astronomical injuries. But there’s much more you’re not hearing about on the news.
Slowly consider and ponder the impact of these real-life statistics and situations in your home, neighborhood, community, town or city:
1. Studies are showing that coronavirus lockdowns are ramping up the obesity epidemic: “We are concerned that policy makers do not fully understand how strategies such as lockdowns and business closures could fuel the rise of obesity – a chronic disease with severe health implications, but with few reliable treatment options,” says associate professor Christoffer Clemmensen, from the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research (CBMR), in a release.
Dr. Walter Willett, M.D., professor of epidemiology and nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, explained the double whammy to Americans’ health is that stay-at-home orders and lockdowns during the coronavirus outbreak have limited sunlight exposure for many people, leading most to “almost certainly have lower vitamin D levels than they would have normally this time of year.” And as reported this past week by AARP, “data from countries where vitamin D deficiency is common show higher cases of COVID-19 infection and more serious health consequences from the illness, including death,” says June McKoy, M.D., associate professor of medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Vitamin D deficiencies are a particular concern as we turn into the fall and winter months (See my CForce weekly health and fitness articles for more information.)
2. To add insult to injury regarding our physical health is the blow to brain health. The CDC’s own survey found a surge of anxiety and substance abuse, with more than 40% of those polled saying they have experienced a mental or behavioral health condition connected to the pandemic. “Younger adults, racial/ethnic minorities, essential workers, and unpaid adult caregivers reported having experienced disproportionately worse” mental health outcomes than other groups, the study concluded.
3. 13 percent of Americans are using drugs or alcohol more heavily, or for the first time, to cope with the pandemic.
4. Another new study shows that domestic violence rose dramatically with COVID-19 lockdowns: “The new research finds evidence that physical abuse has both increased and escalated – even as the numbers of victims coming forward has decreased.” Forbes reported that domestic violence has doubled, and the Los Angeles Times reported that domestic violence injuries are dramatically more severe.
5. New data from the U.S. confirms that drug overdoses have reached “deadly spikes” during the pandemic across the U.S., rising by roughly 18%.
6. The Wall Street Journal just reported that violent crimes and homicides are spiking in most major U.S. cities, in some cases doubling and tripling.
7. Most tragic of all, 11% of Americans (that’s one in 10 precious people) have seriously contemplated suicide through their quarantines and lockdowns. And a staggering one in four young adults between the ages of 18 and 24 say they’ve considered suicide in the past month because of the pandemic, according to new CDC data.
Are those statistics not equally as tragic and staggering as the deaths from COVID-19? And what are the cumulative effects of multiple of these escalations simultaneously occurring in any American home, neighborhood or city?
Combined with the extensive economic tsunami and unemployment fallout, did quarantines and lockdowns really save lives or shove tens of millions into darkness and a downward spiral? Haven’t our government officials and even many health professionals on mainstream media not also crippled and maimed millions of Americans and families by forcing them into extensive lockdowns?
Now, how does the advice “stay home, stay away from people” set in your soul? It’s a little more complicated than most realized. In fact, according to the above statistics, it’s a lot more complicated and in so many cases far more dangerous to stay home.
The facts are that the REAL costs of extensive personal and business lockdowns are a massive increase of American anxiety, depression, other brain disorders, drinking, obesity, domestic violence, violent crimes, opioid overdoses, suicides and a ginormous wake of other “deaths of despair.”
We know experts expect the final number of just three types of “deaths of despair” (from drugs, alcohol and suicide alone) to increase during this COVID-19 crisis and its aftermath. In fact, according to an analysis conducted by the national public health group Well Being Trust, “75,000 Americans [are] at risk of dying from overdose or suicide due to coronavirus despair.” Did you catch that number of deaths? 75,000!
So why aren’t governing officials, mainstream media and society equally as concerned for the deaths of those 75,000 precious Americans as they are those who could die from COVID-19? Does even Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden realize these dire consequences and collateral damage when he commits as president to “shut down the country” again to try and prevent COVID’s continued spread?
Well, if no one else cares enough to address it, I will. I will also share this one ginormous help to lift so many Americans from the ashes and depths of despair.
In a powerful article titled “Dying of Despair,” psychiatrist Aaron Kheriaty observed the startling rise in deaths from suicide and drug overdoses. He pointed to a number of long-term studies that have analyzed the difference between high-risk patients who survive and those who die by suicide. Here’s his conclusion of this research:
“Over a 10-year span, it turns out that the one factor most strongly predictive of suicide is not how sick the person is, nor how many symptoms he exhibits, nor how much physical pain he is suffering, nor whether he is rich or poor. The most dangerous factor is a person’s sense of hopelessness. The man without hope is the likeliest candidate for suicide. … We cannot live without hope.”
So, hope is the key. And as far as a place to start rediscovering hope, I’d highly encourage people start with churches and other centers of faith, if you can find some that are open. In fact, don’t just take my word for it.
The Harvard School of Public Health recently published a fantastic article, “Regularly attending religious services associated with lower risk of deaths of despair.”
The article states: “People who attended religious services at least once a week were significantly less likely to die from ‘deaths of despair,’ including deaths related to suicide, drug overdose, and alcohol poisoning, according to new research led by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.” [Emphasis added.]
Isn’t that helpful news and a powerful remedy and resource for protection and our holistic welfare?
On the other hand, let our governing officials wake up and take heed: According to this Harvard Study, when they shut down churches and other centers of faith too, they are literally closing spiritual hospitals of hope. They are not just essential but lifesavers.
It’s no surprise the book of Psalms in the Jewish Bible states: “Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God. …” (You can receive a daily message of hope by entering your email here.)
