Quote:
Originally Posted by AllYourBaseAreB
Those are stupid apples and oranges comparisons, but you’re having fun writing irrelevant factoids, so knock yourself out
This article appeared in The Hill not exactly friends of the current administration but the studies are real and the impacts are measured and quantified.
Our governmental COVID-19 mitigation policy of broad societal lockdown focuses on containing the spread of the disease at all costs, instead of “flattening the curve” and preventing hospital overcrowding. Although well-intentioned, the lockdown was imposed without consideration of its consequences beyond those directly from the pandemic.
The policies have created the greatest global economic disruption in history, with
trillions of dollars of lost economic output. These financial losses have been falsely portrayed as purely economic. To the contrary, using numerous National Institutes of Health Public Access publications, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Bureau of Labor Statistics data, and various actuarial tables, we calculate that these policies will cause devastating non-economic consequences that will total millions of accumulated years of life lost in the United States, far beyond what the virus itself has caused.
The lost economic output in the U.S. alone is estimated to be
5 percent of GDP, or $1.1 trillion for every month of the economic shutdown. This lost income results in lost lives as the stresses of
unemployment and providing basic needs increase the incidence of
suicide, alcohol or drug abuse, and stress-induced illnesses. These effects are particularly severe on the lower-income populace, as they are more likely to lose their jobs, and mortality rates are much higher for lower-income individuals.
Statistically, every $10 million to $24 million lost in U.S. incomes results in one additional
death. One portion of this effect is through unemployment, which leads to an average increase in mortality of at least 60 percent. That translates into 7,200 lives lost per month among the
36 million newly unemployed Americans, over 40 percent of whom are
not expected to regain their jobs. In addition, many small business owners are
near financial collapse, creating lost wealth that results in
mortality increases of 50 percent. With an average estimate of one additional lost life per $17 million income loss, that would translate to 65,000 lives lost in the U.S. for each month because of the economic shutdown.
In addition to lives lost because of lost income, lives also are lost due to delayed or foregone health care imposed by the shutdown and the fear it creates among patients. From personal communications with neurosurgery colleagues, about half of their patients have not appeared for treatment of disease which, left untreated, risks brain hemorrhage, paralysis or death.
Here are the examples of missed health care on which we base our calculations: Emergency
stroke evaluations are down 40 percent. Of the
650,000 cancer patients receiving chemotherapy in the United States, an estimated half are missing their
treatments. Of the
150,000 new cancer cases typically discovered each month in the U.S., most – as elsewhere in the world –
are not being diagnosed, and two-thirds to three-fourths of routine cancer
screenings are not happening because of shutdown policies and fear among the population. Nearly
85 percent fewer living-donor transplants are occurring now, compared to the same period last year. In addition, more than half of childhood
vaccinations are not being performed, setting up the potential of a massive future health disaster.
The implications of
treatment delays for situations other than COVID-19 result in 8,000 U.S. deaths per month of the shutdown, or about 120,000 years of remaining life. Missed
strokes contribute an additional loss of 100,000 years of life for each month;
late cancer diagnoses lose 250,000 years of remaining life for each month; missing
living-donor transplants, another 5,000 years of life per month — and, if even 10 percent of
vaccinations are not done, the result is an additional 24,000 years of life lost each month.