The societal impacts of COVID-19

[DemonGeminiX]

Lauren Pineda - Rare.us




As we continue to witness the brave fight health care workers have been putting up on the front lines against the coronavirus, we are also reminded that they are not immune to being human. Dr. Lorna Breen, an emergency room doctor who worked in the Columbia University Irving Medical Center and New York-Presbyterian Allen Hospital system, committed suicide on Sunday, April 26.

Dr. Breen was taken to the UVA Hospital in Charlottesville, Virginia after Charlottesville Police Department responded to a call for medical assistance at her sister’s house where she was staying. They later stated in a news release that Dr. Breen died at the UVA Hospital by “[succumbing] to self-inflicted injuries.”

Dr. Breen, the daughter of Dr. Philip Breen (a retired trauma surgeon), had expressed to her father about how the coronavirus outbreak had affected her and her colleagues. She explained specifically how the challenging front lines of the emergency department, along with most other health care institutions nationwide, have completely overextended its first responders, making this pandemic an even more challengingly difficult time.

Dr. Breen had been working endlessly for weeks in United States’ pandemic epicenter, New York City, as an ER doctor, tending to coronavirus patients first hand. She then contracted COVID-19 as well, but after taking only a week and a half off to recover, she immediately went back to “the trenches” of the front line. According to Breen’s father, she couldn’t even make it through a 12-hour shift but was determined to keep helping.

Eventually, a doctor friend of Breen’s told her to go home to Virginia to rest. She was admitted to the UVA Hospital for exhaustion, her mother being a doctor in the ward she was treated. A week later, Dr. Breen stayed with her mother, and then with her sister that weekend. And unfortunately, the mental devastation was too much.

“She went down in the trenches and was killed by the enemy on the front line. She loved New York and wouldn’t hear about living anywhere else. She loved her coworkers and did what she could for them. I just want people to know how special she was,” Breen’s father explained. Dr. Lorna Breen was so determined to do everything she could to help COVID-19 patients at the hand of her own mental health.

It’s important that we realize what those on the front lines against the coronavirus crisis are sacrificing in order to restore order again. These health care workers, first responders, police officers, and more are humans just like the people they are protecting. Their mental health is also at stake, even though we can’t always see it. If you know someone, anyone, having a difficult time with their mental health, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. It’s the least we can do to honor those who have truly given everything they have to protect us.

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FREE AMERICA NOW

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 29, 2020

[lost in melb.]

Bon voyage

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 29, 2020

[Teh One Who Knocks]

By Robert Gearty | Fox News



Stillwater, Oklahoma, Mayor Will Joyce (City of Stillwater)

A city in Oklahoma has lifted a coronavirus mask requirement following reports of physical confrontations — and a threat of violence involving a gun -- at reopened stores and restaurants.

It happened Friday in Stillwater following the reopening of certain businesses forced to close to contain the spread of the virus.

“In the short time beginning on May 1, 2020, that face coverings have been required for entry into stores/restaurants, store employees have been threatened with physical violence and showered with verbal abuse," City Manager Norman McNickle said. “In addition, there has been one threat of violence using a firearm."

Now Stillwater said the mask requirement applies only to the employees of those establishments. A business owner can ask his or her customers to wear a mask. The original order was in effect only a few hours.

“I knew there would be some objections, but I did not expect physical confrontations with employees and threatening phone calls to city hall,” Stillwater Mayor Will Joyce tweeted. “I hate that our businesses and their employees had to deal with abuse today, and I apologize for putting them in that position.”

“I am not the kind of person who backs down from bullies, but I also will not send someone else to fight the battle for me,” Joyce said. “I issued a revised order this afternoon to correct this problem, and we will continue to reevaluate our approach to face coverings.

McNickle said that many of those who objected “cite the mistaken belief the requirement is unconstitutional, and under their theory, one cannot be forced to wear a mask.”

He said no law or court supports that view.

“It is further distressing that these people, while exercising their believed rights, put others at risk,” he said. “As mentioned, there is clear medical evidence the face coverings prevent COVID-19 spread; they are recommended by both the CDC and the Oklahoma State Department of Health. The wearing of face coverings is little inconvenience to protect both the wearer and anyone with whom they have contact. And, an unprotected person who contracts the virus can infect their own loved ones and others."

Oklahoma has reported at least 3,851 coronavirus cases and 238 deaths.

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If people are going to pull out guns I guess you have no choice.

[Griffin]

[PorkChopSandwiches]

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Millions predicted to develop tuberculosis as result of Covid-19 lockdown

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[Hikari Kisugi]

Millions predicted to develop tuberculosis as result of Covid-19 lockdown

Plot twist they already have TB, we didn't care before, and frankly, as long as they don't travel here on passports, I don't care now either.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

THOMAS D. WILLIAMS, PH.D. - Breitbart




The rise in the suicide rate caused by lockdowns in Australia is predicted to exceed deaths from the Wuhan coronavirus by a factor of ten, the Australian reported Thursday.

Researchers from Sydney University’s Brain and Mind Centre forecast a 50 percent rise in the national suicide rate because of the economic and social impact of government responses to the virus, which would drive deaths to as much as ten times higher than those causes by the coronavirus itself.

Already this year global deaths by suicide are significantly higher than those attributed to the coronavirus. According to the respected Worldometers running tallies, there have already been 374,225 suicides since the start of 2020, whereas the Wuhan coronavirus has claimed 251,898 lives, Johns Hopkins University reveals.

If the Australian research holds up for other nations as well, the global suicide rate could end up far outpacing the death toll from COVID-19.

The uptick in Australian suicides will be felt over a number of years, the Australian scholars suggest, and the coronavirus response could produce “a generational mental health crisis” resulting in an extra 1500 deaths each year over the next five years.

The university forecast has received backing from the Australian Medical Association, and Health Minister Greg Hunt is expected to present the results at the national cabinet next week.

Along with the sharp rise in suicides, the research also foresees substantial economic fallout from reduced productivity from the mental health effects of unemployment, school dropouts, and family crises.

According to Ian Hickie, Australia’s former mental health commissioner and the head of the Brain and Mind Centre, the annual rate of suicide could rise from 3000 to up to 4500, with youth suicides making up nearly half that figure.

“We are facing a situation where between an extra 750 and 1500 suicides may occur annually, this in addition to the 3000-plus lives that are lost to suicide already every year,” Professor Hickie said.

Deaths from mental health issues are just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the long-term health impacts from the lockdowns, however, leading some observers to propose that “locking down whole populations in the hope of ‘flattening the curve’ was a catastrophic error, perhaps the worst policy mistake ever committed by Western governments during peacetime.”

For instance, national lockdowns have forced countries across the globe to close down TB treatment programs, which reportedly could lead to 6.3 million additional cases of TB and 1.4 million deaths over the next five years.

[RBP]

Yup. But "the solution can't be worse than the problem" is ignorant bloviating. Huh.

[Griffin]

[lost in melb.]

Tesla is filing a lawsuit against Alameda County immediately. The unelected & ignorant “Interim Health Officer” of Alameda is acting contrary to the Governor, the President, our Constitutional freedoms & just plain common sense!

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 9, 2020

Frankly, this is the final straw. Tesla will now move its HQ and future programs to Texas/Nevada immediately. If we even retain Fremont manufacturing activity at all, it will be dependen on how Tesla is treated in the future. Tesla is the last carmaker left in CA.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 9, 2020