Bronson
Stocking|Posted: Nov 28, 2020 7:35 PM
In an unprecedented
effort to slow the spread of a highly contagious virus, countries around the
world have implemented painful lockdowns responsible for killing an untold
number of jobs, dreams and even people. In one country, more people committed
suicide in the month of October than died from COVID-19 throughout the course
of the pandemic.
Fox News is reporting
that suicides are way up in Japan this year, and experts in the country are
pointing to the prolonged shutdowns as the culprit behind the sharp
increase.
(Via Fox News)
Japan is struggling with
a mental health crisis as the coronavirus pandemic rages on, with more people
dying in one month from suicide than from COVID-19 all year long.
The National Police
Agency said suicides surged to 2,153 in October alone, with more than 17,000
people taking their own lives this year to date, CBS reported.
By comparison, fewer than
2,000 people in the country have died from COVID-19 in 2020.
Experts say the pandemic
has exacerbated mental health issues due to prolonged lockdowns, isolation from
family members, unemployment and other financial concerns, and a lack of school
structure.
"We need to seriously confront reality," chief government spokesman
Katsunobu Kato said this week, announcing new initiatives to help people via
suicide hotlines and social media outreach.
Japan has historically
had high rates of suicide, but the numbers had begun trending downward.
Japan isn't alone when it
comes to countries experiencing an increase in the number of suicides. As the
Wuhan coronavirus lingers on, many countries are continuing to implement
painful economic and social restrictions as tools to combat the spread of the
disease. But the shutdowns are having negative consequences every bit as
serious as the virus itself.
Suicide is already a
leading cause of death in the United States, with the nation's suicide rate
reaching its highest level since World War II before the pandemic. While
information on the number of coronavirus deaths is readily available, data on
suicides during the lockdowns is still forthcoming from the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention. But early indicators suggest the number is on the rise,
as was experienced during other historic health crises and periods of economic
recession.
Suicide hotlines have
been inundated since the
first coronavirus lockdowns took effect earlier this year.
A CDC report found that
11 percent of American adults had seriously considered suicide in the month of
June, around double the rate from the previous summer.
CBS News reported in
September that suicides are up this year by as much as 20 percent in the U.S.
Military when compared to the same time period in 2019.
At the end of May,
following several weeks of painful lockdowns, hundreds of doctors signed
a letter to President Trump warning about the negative health consequences of
prolonged lockdowns, calling such events a "mass casualty
incident."
"These include
150,000 Americans per month who would have had a new cancer detected through
routine screening that hasn't happened, millions who have missed routine dental
care to fix problems strongly linked to heart disease/death, and preventable
cases of stroke, heart attack, and child abuse. Suicide hotline phone calls
have increased 600%," the doctors wrote.
In October, Dr. David
Nabarro, the WHO's Special Envoy on Covid-19 told The
Spectator that lockdowns "have one consequence that you must
never ever belittle, and that is making poor people an awful lot poorer."
The WHO official
forecasted a possible doubling of world poverty next year and "at least a
doubling of child malnutrition" as a result of the lockdown measures.
After the dust settles
and the world staves off the current pandemic, the unintended consequences of
the lockdowns will need to be examined. Hopefully, a better solution can be
developed before the next pandemic that doesn't involve amputating the world's
economy.
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