As lockdowns were put in place to help slow the spread of COVID-19 they have also brought along with them their own problems that the country now faces that could last well beyond when we finally beat or get a handle of the coronavirus.
One of the main issues that these lockdowns are causing is the economic impact they’ve had on the country.
According to Carmen Reinicke, a reporter for Business Insider, due to shelter in place order in April the US economy lost over 20.5 million jobs raising the unemployment rate to 14.7%.
This is around 25 times more the worst monthly decrease in jobs that was seen during the last recession back in 2007 to 2009.
And now going through the month of May, the amount of people filing for unemployment now up to 39 million people and in just week nine alone 2.4 million people filed for unemployment due to the shutdowns.
This is the main reason why the economy and states should start opening more than what they’re doing.
But the argument that’s made against this is that there will be a spike of Coronavirus cases and deaths associated with it, but a study just conducted by JP Morgan found that is simply not the case.
“JPMorgan has a devastating piece arguing that infection rates have declined — not increased — in states where lockdowns have ended, ‘even after allowing for an appropriate measurement lag.’ (Kolonavic),” CNBC reporter Carl Quintanilla tweeted after he was one of the first ones to report on this new study.
This study also found similar results with different countries that have lifted stay at home lockdowns.
“Same goes for various countries, adds JPM. “This means that the pandemic and COVID-19 likely have its own dynamics unrelated to often inconsistent lockdown measures that were being implemented..” Quintanilla tweeted, quoting directly from the study.
Even though these lockdowns were put in place to try to protect people, they may be part of the problem.
According to CNBC, a couple weeks ago data that was collected from 100 hospitals involving around 1,000 COVID-19 patients “shows that 66% of new admissions were from people who had largely been sheltering at home. The next highest source of admissions was from nursing homes, 18%,” CNBC reports.
Another big problem that’s emerging from the lockdowns is the stress that they’re causing on people and it’s taking a huge toll on their mental health.
According to CBS Philly, “Calls to one mental health crisis hotline are up 900%,” CBS Philly reports.
One huge part of this is the stress that people have because of the problems the lockdown has caused.
Because many people have lost their jobs and they don’t know when they’re going to get back to work which makes people worried about their finances and if they have enough money to get by each month.