So this week I wanted to talk about how coronavirus will result in indirect fatalities. Right now due to stay-at-home orders and many non-essential businesses closing down, many Americans are facing unemployment. This has caused many people to have great anxiety about what the future will look like for them and whether they can survive this long without going to work. This puts people who are suffering with pre-existing mental health conditions and drug addictions at a very vulnerable place. While staying at home reduces the rate of new infections and decreases the death toll, this will increase indirect deaths. It has been stated before that economic stress causes an increase in the number of suicide deaths and overdoses. We also see that community gatherings are banned such as going to church. Religious services help people cope during troubling times and now that they cannot go to service anymore this may further contribute to loneliness and isolation and therefore increase suicide. Even though these measures are necessary, we need to put more emphasis on secondary outcomes and make mental health a part of the public health response.
- By: Anissa Lukose