Making people suffer this long under lockdown is something we may someday regret | National Post - Chris Selley:
June 16, 202 - "Last week, the British Columbia coroner’s office reported that 170 people had died in that province from street-drug overdoses in May. It’s the most ever recorded in a single month, and the fourth consecutive month of increase — up from 68 in December. In the first five months of this year, 20-per-cent more people died in B.C. from overdoses than in all of 2019. At time of writing, the official death toll from COVID-19 in British Columbia was 168.
"Advocates for drug law reforms hope that might put things in some perspective. To fight COVID-19 our governments hurled us into a recession and wrote endless blank cheques. For a tiny fraction of that cost, they would say, we could prevent a huge percentage of overdose deaths: By allowing properly run safe-injection sites to open where they’re needed, and by allowing doctors to prescribe pharmaceutical-grade opioids.
"Both remain very controversial — the latter more so than the former. But it’s not an unreasonable hope. Many traditional law-and-order voters will draw a clear line between the two phenomena: COVID-19 sufferers are blameless and incurable, whereas addicts shouldn’t have touched the stuff in the first place, and having gotten themselves addicted should seek treatment. But law-and-order narratives can change rapidly: just ask many conservatives about policing. The opioid addiction epidemic cuts mercilessly across class lines, forcing comfortable and affluent families and their peer groups to confront both the devastating effects and the ignorant facileness of the 'go to treatment' approach: Unless someone is truly ready to kick the habit, and often even then, it simply won’t last.
"B.C.’s grisly overdose toll ought to put the COVID-19 lockdown in stark perspective as well. Experts accurately predicted way back in March that there would be a rise in overdoses, owing to several factors. Border closures were likely to interrupt supply chains and thus alter the composition of street opioids, making them more unpredictable and potentially far more dangerous. Even if safe-injection sites remained open — not all did; others curtailed their hours — the virus safety measures put in place were likely to put off some clients. And the stresses of the lockdown were likely to cause more people to use opioids. And alcohol. And everything else.
"In the coming months and years, we will get an idea of the other tolls the lockdown took on society in the name of saving lives from one specific cause of death. People will almost certainly be found to have died prematurely thanks to delayed or foregone hospital care. Almost from Day One, we had reports from all over the world about spikes in domestic violence. There’s a large, pre-existing body of research linking social isolation with everything from cognitive decline to weakened immune systems and heart disease. 'We’ve seen a year’s worth of suicide attempts in the last four weeks,' a California hospital doctor told ABC News in May. American doctors have reported a spike in anti-anxiety and sleep-aid prescriptions, some of which come with addiction concerns.
"Economic deprivation is also associated with all these negative outcomes, and government intervention certainly won’t save all Canadians from it — not in the short term, and not in the long term when the government of the day decides it’s time to repay our loans. In the long run, most kids will get over losing a few months of school, sports, music, summer camps and everyday social interaction. But that is no small chunk of time in a child’s development. Knowing now (in hindsight, admittedly) that COVID-19 generally treats kids with kid gloves, that needs to be included in the cost-benefit calculation....
"Many bien-pensant Canadians — disproportionately those with backyards, according to my non-peer-reviewed research — are clearly very proud of these extreme lockdown procedures. As the United States reopens and various jurisdictions there endure very significant second waves, their chests seem to swell even more dangerously. They should devote some of their bien-pensing to the collateral damage. In the final analysis, I fear it will not be at all pretty."
Read more: https://nationalpost.com/opinion/chris-selley-making-people-suffer-this-long-under-lockdown-is-something-we-may-someday-regret
June 16, 202 - "Last week, the British Columbia coroner’s office reported that 170 people had died in that province from street-drug overdoses in May. It’s the most ever recorded in a single month, and the fourth consecutive month of increase — up from 68 in December. In the first five months of this year, 20-per-cent more people died in B.C. from overdoses than in all of 2019. At time of writing, the official death toll from COVID-19 in British Columbia was 168.
"Advocates for drug law reforms hope that might put things in some perspective. To fight COVID-19 our governments hurled us into a recession and wrote endless blank cheques. For a tiny fraction of that cost, they would say, we could prevent a huge percentage of overdose deaths: By allowing properly run safe-injection sites to open where they’re needed, and by allowing doctors to prescribe pharmaceutical-grade opioids.
"Both remain very controversial — the latter more so than the former. But it’s not an unreasonable hope. Many traditional law-and-order voters will draw a clear line between the two phenomena: COVID-19 sufferers are blameless and incurable, whereas addicts shouldn’t have touched the stuff in the first place, and having gotten themselves addicted should seek treatment. But law-and-order narratives can change rapidly: just ask many conservatives about policing. The opioid addiction epidemic cuts mercilessly across class lines, forcing comfortable and affluent families and their peer groups to confront both the devastating effects and the ignorant facileness of the 'go to treatment' approach: Unless someone is truly ready to kick the habit, and often even then, it simply won’t last.
"B.C.’s grisly overdose toll ought to put the COVID-19 lockdown in stark perspective as well. Experts accurately predicted way back in March that there would be a rise in overdoses, owing to several factors. Border closures were likely to interrupt supply chains and thus alter the composition of street opioids, making them more unpredictable and potentially far more dangerous. Even if safe-injection sites remained open — not all did; others curtailed their hours — the virus safety measures put in place were likely to put off some clients. And the stresses of the lockdown were likely to cause more people to use opioids. And alcohol. And everything else.
"In the coming months and years, we will get an idea of the other tolls the lockdown took on society in the name of saving lives from one specific cause of death. People will almost certainly be found to have died prematurely thanks to delayed or foregone hospital care. Almost from Day One, we had reports from all over the world about spikes in domestic violence. There’s a large, pre-existing body of research linking social isolation with everything from cognitive decline to weakened immune systems and heart disease. 'We’ve seen a year’s worth of suicide attempts in the last four weeks,' a California hospital doctor told ABC News in May. American doctors have reported a spike in anti-anxiety and sleep-aid prescriptions, some of which come with addiction concerns.
"Economic deprivation is also associated with all these negative outcomes, and government intervention certainly won’t save all Canadians from it — not in the short term, and not in the long term when the government of the day decides it’s time to repay our loans. In the long run, most kids will get over losing a few months of school, sports, music, summer camps and everyday social interaction. But that is no small chunk of time in a child’s development. Knowing now (in hindsight, admittedly) that COVID-19 generally treats kids with kid gloves, that needs to be included in the cost-benefit calculation....
"Many bien-pensant Canadians — disproportionately those with backyards, according to my non-peer-reviewed research — are clearly very proud of these extreme lockdown procedures. As the United States reopens and various jurisdictions there endure very significant second waves, their chests seem to swell even more dangerously. They should devote some of their bien-pensing to the collateral damage. In the final analysis, I fear it will not be at all pretty."
Read more: https://nationalpost.com/opinion/chris-selley-making-people-suffer-this-long-under-lockdown-is-something-we-may-someday-regret
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