Last week I posted something about the current closure in Oregon due to COVID concerns. The specific post is irrelevant at this point, but my overall stance is simply that we are not having the right kind of conversations about the virus and how to manage it, and that the continued closures are doing at least as much damage as the virus itself (the argument that closures are actually worse is getting pretty solidified, but I’ll have to save that for another day). I got a few comments, some from a close friend asking questions and genuinely trying to understand as we have had pretty different views on a lot of the craziness of 2020. I wanted to share my response.
Here is a summary of the questions asked of me:
“Are the shutdowns killing people, running up hospital bills? Yes it is severely affecting small businesses and the economy, but as more people die then there are fewer people to support those businesses, fewer people to vote for change and fight for those less fortunate. What I hear is that ‘my livelihood/rights are more important than another human’s life. Help me understand your POV.”
My thoughts on the closures due to COVID…slightly edited for clarity, but for the most part this was written on Facebook messenger, so cut me some slack on grammar, etc.
“The destruction of small businesses is a huge part of the problem, and I’ll get to that, but there’s quite a bit more that isn’t really getting much visibility or is highly confused in the chatter. These are the things that concern me:
Domestic Violence
1 in 3 women and 1 in 4 men are experiencing intimate partner violence in a normal year. Domestic violence arrest stats during shutdown show an increase anywhere from 18% increase to 300% increase, with the percentage changes based on region. I think it’s fair to use the most reported range: 22-27%. That is just the arrest increase - Most incidents to do not actually get reported due to fear of more abuse, and if they do most of those do not end in an arrest. The reported incidents typically do not include intimate partner rape or child abuse, because these are reported differently. Intimate partner murder rates have risen, as have murder-suicide rates. I am not saying this to be dramatic, I’m saying because it is horrific to me: The thought of being essentially trapped with your abuser day in and day out is heartbreaking to me. Isolation is the most important factor in abusive relationships.
Child Abuse
Much of the reporting of child abuse is actually done by outside forces, mandatory reporters, that the children or parents encounter in the community (I am one, actually). BUT, the research so far shows that previously abusive parents are nearly 5x more likely to psychologically abuse their kids in isolation, and 20x (!!) more likely to be physically abusive. The reprieve for children in these kinds of homes is typically when they are in school, or when their parents are at work. They are not getting those breaks, and not making contact with healthier adults.
Being the victim of child abuse significantly increases the likelihood of that person then becoming an abuser themselves. 35% of abusers were abused themselves, versus 11% of the general population. They are also less likely to graduate high school, more likely to commit both non-violent and violent crime. The more a child experiences abuse, the more normalized it becomes in their mind - the psychological change becomes much more profound in this way, and it does NOT take years for this to happen. A few months will do the trick.
Considering that both intimate partner and child abuse are progressive cycles, most of this is not all that surprising to people who work in these types of fields. More contact means faster progression of these cycles.
Substance Abuse
The estimate is that alcohol use has increased 55% (sales went up 200%), and illicit drug use (pills and narcotics) has increased 36%. Even if we just look at alcoholism, this is a progressive disease; the more exposure, the faster it progresses. The increase was reported by users as a way to cope with stress, relieve boredom and cope with increased mental health symptoms. I am so fucking grateful that I had nearly a year sober by the time this all started, or I’d be drinking by 10am daily by now. Substance abuse is a contributing factor to the child abuse and domestic violence I already mentioned, adding even more to that toll.
Suicide
The rates of attempted suicide are up, though the measure is hard to discern as reliable stats are created from data 2 years past. BUT, the CDC reported that the number of people who strongly considered taking their lives this year was roughly double that of 2018. In people 18-24, 1 in 4 people have considered suicide. It is nearly impossible that anyone reading this doesn’t know someone who has seriously considered suicide this year.
Most concerning when it comes to suicide however are the well-being trends. Rates of depression and anxiety symptoms have risen sharply, and more people are reporting suicidal ideation who never have in the past which means they’ve never learned coping mechanisms and their routes for learning those things right now are much more limited. Some reports indicate a 65% increase in calls to suicide hotlines – these hotlines cannot keep up. My panic attacks got so bad I almost went to the ER several times. I thought about suicide for the first time in a decade. I’m fortunate to have found a PTSD treatment (a post is coming soon on this treatment, but if you are curious you can start here, and feel free to message me for more info), and to be able to afford a treatment that is not covered by insurance – I still have a job, after all.
Small businesses
Both small and larger businesses are closing/not making money, and therefore leaving the owners and employees without work/income. So their bills are running up too - and non-medical bills are harder to manage when it comes to credit implications. Unemployment benefits were increased, yes, but for many the limits are not much different than they would have been in any year, they are just allowed to go through the money faster. Once it runs out, it’s out. And people’s livelihood matters, because livelihood is part of being able to live life - if people lose their businesses, and unemployment runs out, they have nothing to go back to. That affects the rest of their lives, and that of their families. All of this increases stress, depression, anxiety, abusive behavior, substance abuse, suicidal ideation…there are a lot of people standing at the edge of a precarious cliff.
Not to mention that the dollars from those small businesses have shifted to the larger companies, making the divide between the big and small even deeper.
Finally, ALL of these things are being shown to impact low income and marginalized communities more significantly than those already in a good position. So, their position only gets worse.
These are generational problems that are being created.
In no way do I believe we throw all caution to the wind.
Right at the beginning of this - this is not hindsight talking - in a conversation with my Dad we both thought the most logical thing to do would be to leave everything open, reduce capacity, and funnel funds and resources to immunocompromised and elderly people, and those that must quarantine due to actual illness. Programs to pay for grocery delivery and help running errands, etc. Consider accommodations wherever possible for people to work from home, get more distance from people at work, better ventilation, whatever. But it makes no sense to me that the answer has not significantly evolved, especially with all of the other human costs of a shut down.”
Those are my thoughts. Well, some of them. I so deeply appreciated my friend asking questions, and being willing to really listen and understand a different point of view. Those people seem to be in short supply right now.
In this conversation I did not even acknowledge loss of rights, but the implications of letting our rights go is significant – it’s not about some hillbilly with a Trump flag screaming “‘Merica!” who doesn’t care about their neighbor. They exist, and have a right to be heard like everyone else (though I’d argue most hillbillies care more about their neighbors than the rest of us), but overall that is a caricature. A slow slide of constitutional rights is dangerous for all of us.
To be continued…
Some sources:
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6932a1.htm
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2771618/
https://abc7.com/suicide-hotline-calls-coronavirus-covid19-los-angeles/6117099/