What a Prolonged Shutdown Will Cost in Human Life

by Jacki Deason

Ezekiel Emanuel, adviser to presidential candidate Joe Biden and Obamacare architect, just called for a 12-to-18-month lockdown to battle COVID-19, asking us to abandon our livelihoods, religious services, and “contact with friends and extended family.” He claims we have “no choice” and that the alternative is hundreds of thousands of deaths.

He has also said that COVID-19 is a “great argument for universal health care coverage.” His plan is politically motivated — and deadly.

When President Trump expressed concerns about the shutdown, his critics presented a false choice between mitigating deaths and the economy. In reality, a great number of the most vulnerable American lives will be lost from economic shutdown, and Emanuel makes it clear that we have reached the moment where we must plead their case.

 A prolonged shutdown could bring tens of thousands of deaths through spikes in rates of suicide, heart attack, missed cancer diagnoses, domestic violence deaths, substance abuse, and more. We have evidence that these deaths are coming, and the shutdown is only a month old.

A suicide spike is almost certain. One study in Taiwan indicated a 10% increase in the unemployment rate yielded approximately 30,000 suicides annually. Another global study linked the 2008 recession to a 20% to 30% increase in the relative risk of suicides.

 We already had a suicide epidemic in this country before the virus, with nearly 50,000 Americans taking their own lives, and an additional estimated 1.4 million attempting to do so, in 2018 alone.

The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis estimates over 52 million will be laid off just by the second quarter of 2020, for a 32.1% unemployment rate, far higher than Great Depression estimates of 20% to 25% unemployment. Should these predictions materialize, and if history can be our guide, we are going to lose tens of thousands of American lives to suicide … or more, if these impacts of a three-month shutdown were extended to realize Emanuel’s plan of 12-18 months of shutdown.

Jacki Deason is host of “The Jacki Daily Show” on TheBlaze.

Read the full article on RealClear Politics.