Questioning the lockdown is seen as a domain of anti-science, alt right, conspiracy theorists. But the effects of these lockdowns are destructive to mental health, devastating to low income populations and catastrophic for developing countries. /1 https://www.forbes.com/sites/pedrodacosta/2020/08/10/the-covid-19-crisis-has-wiped-out-nearly-half-of-black-small-businesses/
Places of human connection and community building, like restaurants, bars and small business, close forever, while the automotive industry, with so many harmful effects (including worsening covid symptoms through pollution) fares well. /2 https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/16/yelp-data-shows-60percent-of-business-closures-due-to-the-coronavirus-pandemic-are-now-permanent.html
Rather than locking down people into sedentary inactivity with cheap sugary food, why not shut down the junk food industry instead, since obesity kills far more than covid while also worsening the effects of covid? /3 https://science.sciencemag.org/content/369/6509/1280
We are killing the elderly in the name of saving them, rather than making immediate and meaningful changes to long term care homes, and supporting caregivers so the elderly can age at home. /4 https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/hidden-covid-19-health-crisis-elderly-people-are-dying-isolation-n1244853
For those clamouring for harsher and longer lockdowns, why not invite the homeless or those stuck in tiny apartments into the house, backyard or vacation retreat you find comfort in while so many others suffer? /5 https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/09/1072602
Are lockdowns really worth the cost of massively increasing numbers of suicide both here and around the world? /6 https://edition.cnn.com/2020/11/28/asia/japan-suicide-women-covid-dst-intl-hnk/index.html
Human connection is crucial, as essential to health as water, air and food. Drastic measures to improve health are needed, but we aren't taking the ones that matter, and are hurting each other with the ones we are taking. /end https://globalnews.ca/news/7391217/world-mental-health-day-canada/