Could, would, should. Sure, bud. Do you know what Holodomor was? Go look at the pictures and tell me it's in any way comparable. With every economic downturn, suicides and deaths increase. That's not news.
Let's create a huge panic over excess suicides -- that are not occurring --- and tie it into COVID-19 so our "Center for Policy Studies in Family Medicine and Primary Care" can get more funding. Furthermore let's give it a fancy name like "deaths of despair" to get media attention.
I'm sure some of these suicides are Covid positive, so they can inflate your Covid statistics further. You should be happy.
It's not right to just casually dismiss the suicides that are happening. Sure there are few statistics for us to know how many are directly related to this mess and how many were on the edge to begin with. Kind of like tracking of Covid related deaths of people who were on their death beds to begin with. Isn't anyone really looking for anything that doesn't push their chosen narrative. People are suffering and people are dying as a result of this arguably unnecessary shutdown, that is a fact. How many can be argued but if you're going to take the position that all these Covid deaths are tragic without regard to age or preexisting conditions, then every suicide is also just as tragic no matter how close to the edge they were to begin with. Maybe one day all of us, myself included, can set aside our personal agendas and just see the real extent of what is happening and whether or not the way this has been handled was too much or too little. All I see with certainty is that the people making all of these life changing decisions aren't the ones doing the suffering.
Answer one clear question -- is the number of suicides in March of 2020 in the U.S. greater than the number of suicides in March 2019 accounting for population growth? Is the number of suicides in April of 2020 in the U.S. greater than the number of suicides in April 2019 accounting for population growth? The answer is No. So therefore pushing that COVID-19 lock-downs have increased the suicide rate in the U.S is a false narrative. The same with other countries - there is no statistical evidence whatsoever at this point that COVID-19 lock-downs have increased the suicide rate. Trying to push an "anti lock-down" narrative of social harm due to suicides with no supporting statistical evidence for the claims is fundamentally flawed.
Accounting for population growth? Please. I have a question for you. How many of the Covid dead were dying from something other than Covid to begin with? I'm simply using your standard for counting the Covid dead. You take the position that every single death is the direct result of the virus without any consideration to prior health or any othet circumstances. Fine, then every single suicide which has happened since the shutdown is a direct result of that circumstance, doesn't matter how suicidal they were previously. They may have been suicidal but they weren't actually committed to suicide until after the shutdown. Conclusion, shutdown was the thing that pushed them over the edge. That's not my argument but using your standard it should be. Bottom line, if you can casually and callously dismiss the suicides then don't tell me to give a shit about some old fuck in a nursing home who was a day away from the grave to begin with.
When comparing statistics for year to year for a community you need to account for any increase in the number of the population when arriving at a percentage of suicides (or any other event) in the community (or sample set). Bottom line the suicide rate in February, March, or April 2020 has not increased from their respective months in 2019 in any country reporting data. This means that there has not been an increase in suicide rates due to COVID-19 lock-downs. Despite all the scary claims in the media that there may be a huge increase in suicides to the mental health issues due to being locked down -- while at the same time blaming this potential rise in the U.S. due to easy access to firearms (all while urging the seizure of fire arms from homes).
You're dodging my point. I don't care whether it's one or a thousand suicides, that's not the point. The point is You simply cannot count every death as Covid related without regard to any preexisting condition or how close they were to death to begin with and then just dismiss every suicide as a, well they were going to do it anyway so the shutdown didn't play any role.If Covid, no matter insignificant to the overall cause of death will be stated as cause of death, then the shutdown no matter how small a part in may have played should still be considered a factor in the suicides. And while we're on the subject of "scary claims" made by the media, millions are not dying, health care systems have not collapsed, plenty of ventilators were available, untold millions spent on building additional hospital space was completely unnecessary, and the unenforced we're all gonna die quarantine accomplished nothing.
Did the individual display symptoms of COVID-19. There are a clear list of symptoms that must be displayed in a hospital in the U.S. before a death can be attributed in any manner as COVID-19 related. The claims that hospitals are simply marking every death as "COVID-19" for more Medicaid/Medicare money is absurd. Due to a proper public health response in most states the hospitals were not over-run with patients and ventilators were available. This is all attributable to the lock-downs. An increase in suicide is much more likely to be driven by economic distress than COVID-19 lock-downs. As of now in the U.S. we have $600 extra weekly in unemployment, $1200 payments, freezes on evictions and other relief measures. We are not currently seeing the economic distress at the family level yet. This may change in a few months once the government measures are completed and people are being evicted & can't pay their bills. This would likely drive an increase in suicides -- being locked-down with your family due to COVID-19 is not.
The meat industry's dirty secret --- they are exporting most of the meat for profit. Having the plants stay open is really only helping their profit line while making the workers sick. It is not about the U.S. lacking meat -- any U.S. meat "shortages" are artificial. As U.S. meat workers fall sick and supplies dwindle, exports to China soar https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...s-dwindle-exports-to-china-soar-idUSKBN22N0IN U.S. President Donald Trump ordered meat processing plants to stay open to protect the nation’s food supply even as workers got sick and died. Yet the plants have increasingly been exporting to China while U.S. consumers face shortages, a Reuters analysis of government data showed. Trump, who is in an acrimonious public dispute with Beijing over its handling of the coronavirus outbreak, invoked the 1950 Defense Production Act on April 28 to keep plants open. Now he is facing criticism from some lawmakers, consumers and plant employees for putting workers at risk in part to help ensure China’s meat supply. Meat buyers in China ramped up imports from around the world as a pig disease decimated its herd, the world’s largest, and pushed Chinese pork prices to record highs. The supply shock drove China to pay more for U.S. meat than other countries, and even U.S. consumers, since late 2019. “We know that over time exports are critically important. I think we need to focus on meeting domestic demand at this point,” said Mike Naig, the agriculture secretary in the top U.S. pork-producing state of Iowa who supported Trump’s order. Processors including Smithfield Foods, owned by China’s WH Group Ltd, Brazilian-owned JBS USA and Tyson Foods Inc temporarily closed about 20 U.S. meat plants as the virus infected thousands of employees, prompting meatpackers and grocers to warn of shortages. Some plants have resumed limited operations as workers afraid of getting sick stay home. The disruptions mean consumers could see 30% less meat in supermarkets by the end of May, at prices 20% higher than last year, according to Will Sawyer, lead economist at agricultural lender CoBank. While pork supplies tightened as the number of pigs slaughtered each day plunged by about 40% since mid-March, shipments of American pork to China more than quadrupled over the same period, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data. tmsnrt.rs/2YLF1XN Smithfield, which China’s WH Group bought for $4.7 billion in 2013, was the biggest U.S. exporter to China from January to March, according to Panjiva, a division of S&P Global Market Intelligence. Smithfield shipped at least 13,680 tonnes by sea in March, Panjiva said, citing its most recent data. Smithfield, the world’s biggest pork processor, said in April that U.S. plant closures were pushing retailers “perilously close to the edge” on supplies. The company is now retooling its namesake pork plant in Smithfield, Virginia, to supply fresh pork, bacon and ham to more U.S. consumers, according to a statement. The move is an about-face after the company reconfigured the plant last year to process hog carcasses for the Chinese market, employees, local officials and industry sources told Reuters. The Virginia facility currently serves export markets like China and domestic customers, according to Smithfield. Most U.S. pork processors routinely export products to more than 40 international markets, company spokeswoman Keira Lombardo said. The virus infected about 850 employees at another Smithfield pork plant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Across the U.S. industry, about 5,000 infections and 20 deaths occurred, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “That tragic outcome is all the worse when the food being processed is not going to our nation’s families,” said U.S. Representative Rosa DeLauro, a Democrat from Connecticut. “That is what the Defense Production Act is all about: protecting America’s national interests, not China’s.” Pork processor Fresh Mark resumed making bacon and ham for global customers at a Salem, Ohio, plant it shut in April over coronavirus cases. “If we start having a shortage in America, I think it should stay here,” said Bruce Fatherly, a maintenance worker at the plant and member of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. Fresh Mark said exports are a small part of its business. WHOLE HOGS The supply concerns could not have been foreseen when Trump signed a deal in January to ease a trade war he started with Beijing two years earlier. China promised to increase purchases of U.S. farm goods by at least $12.5 billion in 2020 and $19.5 billion in 2021, over the 2017 level of $24 billion. The White House declined to comment. The USDA and U.S. Trade Representative’s office did not respond to requests for comment. China increased its purchases because of its dire need for protein after the pig disease African swine fever led to the death of half the country’s herd over the past two years. Beijing lifted a nearly five-year ban on U.S. chicken imports in November and also waived retaliatory tariffs on meat shipments to help boost supplies. Year-to-date, about 31% of U.S. pork has been exported, totaling about 838,000 tonnes, according to the U.S. Meat Export Federation. One-third of that volume went to China, accounting for more than 10% of total first-quarter production, the industry group said. It added that exports help increase U.S. production by raising overall demand. Carcasses, which include most of the pig, were the top product shipped to China in January and February, according to USDA. Loads also include feet and organs that many Americans do not eat. Exports to China set a record for the period from January to March, and shipments to all destinations in March set a record for any month, according to USDA. JBS, which produces pork, beef and chicken, told Reuters it reduced exports to focus on meeting U.S. demand during the pandemic. About 280 employees at a JBS beef plant in Greeley, Colorado, have been infected with the virus, and seven died, union officials said. “I think we need to take care of our country and our needs first,” said Kim Cordova, president of the local United Food and Commercial Workers International Union that represents plant employees. Tyson Foods President Dean Banks said on a conference call last week that he expects China’s demand for U.S. pork to remain strong as it recovers from a COVID-19 lockdown. Suppliers like Tyson have limited meat products for American retailers because of plant closures. Kroger Co and Costco Wholesale Corp, meanwhile, restricted shoppers’ meat purchases. U.S. farmers, who struggled financially during the trade war with Beijing, say they still need importing countries, including China, to buy their pork. Prior the pandemic, they grappled with an oversupply of hogs. “There’s enough meat for all channels if we could get these plants back up and rolling,” said Brian Duncan, a hog farmer and vice president of the Illinois Farm Bureau.