Mental Health issues during this pandemic are killing more people than the virus

They say today (20200731) that there are 189 deaths in Australia attributed to Covid19. These numbers are simply not true and paint the wrong picture.

There are many other deaths that are the result of this pandemic. While numbers are not yet confirmed, the deaths from suicide alone have skyrocketed. About 3000 people die each year from suicide and early unconfirmed numbers say that we've already passed that number with only 50% of the year completed.

People have no work, they have massive shame, they are under more stress than ever with many leaving the house to go to work or school was their only release - now forced to stay home. There are many who have lost jobs, can't afford to pay rent, feed their family. Some of these people look like they have significant assets - house, car, etc... all owned by banks and finance companies, but they are unlikely to pass the asset tests for government support, and as if government support would be enough to support them.

I know a few people who work in men's health, and they are saying this is Armageddon for those at risk. Every possible pressure - at the same time - and also not able to escape and be alone. The mental health implications of shame are significant, and I think we're going to see staggering numbers on the other side of this event.

The Federal government is launching a national suicide register - to be ready in 2022. Shame on the responsible department. They managed to spin up Contact Tracing and Pandemic Management Teams in the thousands who are obviously running systems.

Yet suicide is likely to have killed 10 times the numbers that the virus already has, and the longer this situation goes on, it will escalate rapidly as people reach the end of their resources - work, borrowing from family and friends (if they have them), savings, even selling assets. It will inevitably run out.

The government needs to put way way more funding into social services. Propping up retail/business is good, but it doesn't cover all workers, especially hospitality, events and event management, tourism, and much more. Even Real-estate is being hammered. Few are moving house, leaving rentals empty and sale turnovers and prices are crashing. Who can even afford to move?

I know a family with 3 adult children and all 5 family members lost their jobs. The kids have started to move back home to survive as a couple of them worked in hospitality and haven't worked since the first lockdown.

Shanti and I are Futurists. We spend a lot of time "looking forward to the future" of society in general. This pandemic is a very fluid situation is making it very hard in some ways, but very easy in other areas.

The world will NOT ever be the same. We talk to a lot of people and most assume this will end at some point. While it will, we will not be returning to the way things used to be. Too much has changed to go back to the old ways. Old ways that this pandemic has exploited to do the damage it has done.

Don't misunderstand me.

Australia - we're good right now. Our numbers are nothing like that of other countries including the US, UK, Brazil, France, India.... tens of thousands dead.

We can barely comprehend those sorts of numbers and most people I hear are writing it off as a population situation. They have lots of people, so they will have lots of deaths.

NO.

It is has nothing to do with the population of a country.

Sweden has 10M people with 80k cases and 5739 deaths.

We have 25M, 16k cases and 189 deaths.

We're not going through a 2nd wave.

The media love to report by FUD. NSW has not even had a "first wave" yet. A cruise ship screwup isn't a wave. A few dozen dead isn't a wave.

Victoria (Melbourne) is only having its 1st wave now - the only city/state to do so, and it is going to get a lot worse - for them, and the rest of the country, especially as we don't seem to be learning.

Contact tracing and Isolation is only useful up to a point - a point long passed according to some science friends. Their expertise suggests that at 100 per day new infection, it is going to overwhelm amount contact tracers

So, why this rant? Well, hopefully, to provide some context to what is happening with the sort of the things that the media doesn't talk about. They like to scare everyone with the number of deaths - which if you look at clinically, are less than pre-covid19 figures.

Quickly. The 2019 flu season in Australia saw 310k lab positives. There were 900 deaths related to the flu (that could be attributed and confirmed by labs).

In 2020, there have been 20k positive tests so far and 36 attributable deaths (confirmed by labs).

When you net out the deaths from Covid19 so far vs. the 2019 flu season, we're actually way ahead by some 700+ fewer deaths than last year.

Technically the pandemic itself, the resulting lockdowns, isolation procedures, massive drop in international travel, general movement restrictions - have meant that some 700+ LESS deaths so far than last year. Weird numbers huh?

But, is that number wiped out by the increase in suicides and other related problems. I think it might be. But we'd need to do some serious numbers and look at Road Deaths (less), much less medical mistakes which apparently kill 18k per year!?! - but there is a massive drop there. Murders, gangs, all of it is a lot less because most people are off the streets. I'd love to see the overall analysis and whether or not this pandemic actually ends up being a 'Good Thing' (cough).

We need to look after each other. We need community accountability. These idiots running around quoting a script and saying the entire pandemic is a hoax - they are just the pandemic anti-vaxer equivalent who care about only themselves and so one else.

If YOU do a bit better - ask someone if they are OK. Don't panic buy. Follow the guidelines as best as possible. Take advantage of this situation by improving yourself with education (i.e. Free TAFE courses), then we will all come out the other side better for it.

...Skeeve