The devastating side-effects from government-imposed lockdowns keeps growing. The lack of benefits and damage from lockdowns is becoming more obvious with every week that passes.
Merely a few of the recent articles in the news:
- Suicide attempts amongst youth increasing.
- Long-term care residents in Canada remain in solitary confinement in spite of 90% of them having been vaccinated.
- Unemployment rate higher in states with harsh lockdowns, lower in states with freedom.
3/16/21 – Foundation for Economic Education – Child Suicide is Becoming an “International Epidemic” Amid Restricted Pandemic Life, Doctors Warn – Associated Press interviewed a British doctor who works in an ER. Number of suicide attempts he is treating has gone from a couple a week before the pandemic started to several a day now.
While the last year has been difficult for us adults, think about a year as a portion of a person’s life. For those of us in the workforce for a couple decades a year is a small fraction of our life.
For an eight-year-old or 10-year-old, one full year is a huge portion of their life. An even larger portion of what they can actively recall.
Look at it from an eight-year-old’s perspective. Imagine this child can remember fairly well what happened since second birthday. The pandemic year is 1/6 of this youngster’s life.
Ponder a 40-year-old. 1/6 of that adult’s life would be six years. Imagine this pandemic craziness had been going on for six entire years. That would be devastating to the strongest adult.
The hard statistic at this doctor’s hospital is going from 20 suicide attempts a month to twice that. Even more disturbing is the seriousness of the attempts has increased.
The doctor reports nine-year-olds who have a serious desire to die. He has not seen that focused intent at that young an age .
It is highly probable that the government officials who impose such horrid lockdowns on societies across the world actually intended to do good. I acknowledge that was probably the intention. They were trying to save lives.
As is usual there are collateral consequences to any action. For any action or policy there are intended and unintended consequences.
For every government policy there are second order and third order effects.
A second-order effect of shutting down the economy for a year is wide-spread depression with third order effect of skyrocketing suicide rates for people under age 15.
As if destroying education wasn’t enough, why are government officials indirectly causing the deaths of children? After a year, this is no longer an unknown side-effect.
3/30/21 – CBC News (Canada) – Long-term care resident big to go outside after year-long Covid-19 confinement – In Canada, people who live in long-term care facilities (nursing homes) have been confined to their rooms for a full year now. Almost every resident has been vaccinated yet the forced solitary confinement continues to be the policy.
Actual vaccination rate is reported at over 90% for long-term care residents.
There are an estimated 150,000 people who have been confined, with some of the solitary confinement sentences running up to 15 months.
One resident located in Newmarket has not been allowed outside for over a year and hasn’t had a shower in five or six months.
One person was actually allowed out to attend a funeral but was put on nine-day isolation when she returned.
A named attorney says these restrictions are in violation of human rights. No kidding.
She calls the confinements illegal. I am completely unfamiliar with Canadian law but that sounds about right.
There are reported incidences in which police have been called to enforce the solitary confinement rules.
Actually, I am a bit surprised. A year or more of solitary confinement for the elderly would have devastating effects on physical and mental health. I’m just a bit surprised there has been a 50% or 75% fatality rate.
Why are we torturing senior citizens? Of whom 90% have been vaccinated?
4/4/21 – Alpha News – Free states faring far better than lockdown states in one huge way, new data shows – For a while now it has been obvious that state governments choosing a harder lockdown have not produced better health outcomes than state governments that allowed their citizens more freedom to decide what is best for themselves.
Analysis in this article shows unemployment rate in states choosing more freedom rather than less are seeing far better results in the unemployment rates.
From the following list of unemployment rates (also including the national average for February), make a totally, completely, wild guess what approach each state is taken:
- 2.9% – South Dakota
- 3.0% – Utah
- 3.1% – Nebraska
- 6.2% – national average for February
- 8.5% – Connecticut
- 8.9% – New York
- 9.2% – Hawaii
Article has a map from Foundation for Economic Education showing the states with highest and lowest unemployment rates. See if you can find a pattern.
High unemployment:
- California, Nevada, New Mexico, Illinois, Louisiana, New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey, District of Columbia, Hawaii.
Low unemployment
- Montana, Idaho, Utah, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, Wisconsin, Georgia, Florida, Vermont, New Hampshire.
Picking up on the pattern yet?
So the conclusion is that state governments that have chosen harsh lockdown regimens have not only failed to produce better health outcomes, they have also caused far worse unemployment.