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Comment by shiftpgdn | Hacker News Reader

I have been shouting from the roof tops that if we don't implement some sort of UBI and second string PPP program we are going to see many more people die deaths of desperation as their economic livleyhoods are stripped away.

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Or just fix the health care system so a family of four doesn't have to spend thousands every year before they get a single band-aid.

Suicide is up in every countries with lockdowns. “Generous” money printing or not.

> Suicide is up in every countries with lockdowns

You can't say this. You haven't looked at the stats. England had a lockdown. What stats are you using for the UK?

You're making a huge claim. Data, please.

The US, as far as I have seen, hasn't released any meaningful updates in suicide numbers for 2020, against a backdrop of suicide rates climbing since '99.

Sure but it can always go up more, like when the extra unemployment money ends (if we're talking about the US).

Pandemics, historically, have never been fun.

The suicide rate from 1999 until 2019 increased by 35%[1]. It's been an unaddressed growing systemic issue for a long time. As of June 23, the COVID death rate was 36 per 100,000[2] in just a handful of months. As of 2019 the average suicide rate was 14 per 100,000[1]. Unless that suicide rate does an unprecedented 250% jump it's not going to have the impact Covid has had so far, not to mention the rest of the year, which as we can see is going to be messy given the rate of increases (many of the current hotspots had a big jump in deaths per day the last couple of days).

It's tragic that suicide is increasing, it really is, but COVID is the far greater threat.

[1]https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db362.htm

[2]https://www.statista.com/chart/21170/coronavirus-death-rate-...

Here is a doctor claiming they've seen a 13x increase (+1200%) in suicides: https://abc7news.com/health/suicides-on-the-rise-amid-stay-a...

He later retracted that, as it wasn't true: https://www.redding.com/story/news/2020/05/29/no-bay-area-ho...

That's an awesome find, thank you!

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