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Overestimating COVID-19, Underestimating Loneliness

AP Photo/Gregory Bull
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People sit at tables at San Diego State University Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2020, in San Diego. San Diego State University on Wednesday halted in-person classes for a month after dozens of students were infected with the coronavirus. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

I think at this point it’s clear that the lockdowns weren’t worth it. Not only did they not really help keep COVID-19 from spreading, but they also forced people into isolation.

CBS4 in Denver released an article that really details just how nasty this isolation was for some, especially the elderly. According to them, they would much rather face the dangers of COVID-19 and die from that, then sit by themselves in the quiet as heartbreak sets in and die anyway.

Elderly people staying at the Fairacres Manor held up handwritten signs telling everyone that they’re prisoners in their own home and that they demand their freedom. One had the message bluntly stated that he’d rather die of the Coronavirus than live like this.

To be sure, it’s no way to live as an administrator of the Fairacres Manor concedes:

Ben Gonzales, an assistant administrator at Fairacres Manor, said the residents are upset about the COVID-19 restrictions put in place by the state health department.

“They want to be able to hug their grandchildren, they want to be able to hold the hands of their loved ones,” Gonzales said.

Gonzales said the residents are able to see visitors, but they have to stay six feet apart and can’t have any physical contact.

Gonzales told CBS4 the Fairacres Resident Council wanted their voices to be heard — and organized the protest on 16th Street.

“We used to be lucky here at Fairacres to show each other what we mean to one another and we cannot do that anymore,” said Resident Council President Sharon Peterson, who is 75. “Fairacres follows the rules and, with that, we think they would keep us safe while being able to be with our families again.”

“We did this because one thing we have to look forward to is a simple hug,” Peterson said. “It gives us meaning.”

It’s not just the elderly that are suffering.

At the end of September, military suicides saw a 20 percent increase due to the lockdowns. That went more or less unreported, as did the massive increase in calls to suicide hotlines. Also unreported was the fact that hundreds of doctors signed a letter urging for the lifting of lockdowns due to the fact that “despair deaths” would overwhelm America, which also includes an increase in drug and alcohol abuse.

The number of children killing themselves has shot up as well according to NBCDFW:

At Cook Children’s, the vast majority of patients treated for self-harming are girls, typically between the ages of 13 and 15.

So far in 2020, 192 kids have been admitted to Cook Children’s for attempting suicide. Compare that to the same time period in 2015 when the hospital saw 88 patients – less than half of the current statistics.

In August, it was reported that a quarter of those aged 18-24 have contemplated suicide.

Humans are pack animals. We need social interaction and peer to peer presence. Keeping someone in isolation is such a nasty thing that even prisons are looking to reform solitary confinement. It’s unnatural to us as a species to be so alone for so long without our family and friends.

We’re so naturally geared toward being around one another that our bodies use one another to make sure we stay healthy. We develop immunities by sharing germs and viruses.

In short, what we’re doing now is not only killing ourselves by not allowing our bodies to do what they do naturally in order to conquer sicknesses like COVID-19, but we’re killing ourselves by keeping each other isolated from one another. We have vastly overestimated the virus that we’re hiding away from but have given almost no attention to one of the very basic needs of the human race and it’s going to have longer-lasting effects on people than the virus ever will.

 

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