Quote:
Originally Posted by 'Hamas' Jenkins
I do think that we need to consider the impact on mental health. I know that this quarantine has been very hard on my own. However, I also believe that the excess deaths postulated from opening everything back up far surpass the mental health damage.
From a selfish standpoint, I also know that opening everything up places me at higher risk as well as my wife. I don't want her exposed any more than possible, not only for my sake, but hers.
Ultimately, I think we have to do whatever we can to stop overwhelming the healthcare system. If we end up with a surge that overwhelms our ability to protect them, it will create a shortage of providers for years that will itself lead to thousands upon thousands of excess deaths.
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I don't disagree with any of this. I'm simply saying all sides have to be heard in these discussions.
You speak to the long-term impacts being felt for years, I think that will be even MORE stark in mental health instances. Or family stability. I don't think this is political but it does come in part from my ideology - I think family stability is absolutely massive in long-term health and education outcomes (which then drive further positive outcomes across the board). I think the data on that is largely unassailable. Much of this comes from families that have the financial wherewithal to provide; we all know that money troubles are HUGE forces in family instability.
When you start to impact a family's ability to provide and start to shake their family dynamics at their cores, that has immense long-term impact. Many, if not most, will eventually rebound to normalcy. But many will not. And those impacts will be felt for years. Potentially generations.
Almost certainly moreso than losing a grandparent would.
My sister's an emergency room physician in Houston. My wife's an NP at University Hospital. Shit, anyone who lives in Columbia has connections with dozens of front-line healthcare workers. Virtually every one of my friends or their spouses works in healthcare in some way (I'm hard pressed to think of a single one who doesn't at the moment). I'm well aware of the fear they're facing and certainly endorse efforts to protect them.
But again, that cannot be the only place we make policy decisions from.