We really should have some suicide statistics by now. We have that one hospital in the San Francisco area saying they had “a years worth of suicides in a month”, and I personally was told by a funeral director that he was seeing a lot of suicides, and I also know someone who knew four people who overdosed.
But where is the CDC in all this? They recently admitted 1 in 4 young adults had, as they say, “suicidal ideation”. But how many killed themselves?
As I’m sure I’ve mentioned, the first book of sociology, arguably, was on the topic of suicide, and reached the conclusion, based on data, that journalistic coverage of suicides causes in increase in suicides. In effect, you kill people indirectly by telling the public that someone shot or hung or poisoned themselves.
Here is the thing, though: you may cause more people to die THIS MONTH if you admit there is a pandemic of suicide, but in our present situation, it is equally possible–and probably likely–that you kill MORE people down the road–a month, two months, six months–by failing to admit we have a HUGE PROBLEM, and working from that basis of public knowledge to end it.
We are not living in normal times. These are highly stressful times, and the numerical cost of the stress MUST be a factor in how long and to what extent we continue the mask charade, the physical distancing, the fear, the terror and the panic.
In my view, it is highly unethical NOT to admit the obvious, that many people who were already on the brink are ending their lives, and doing so in much, much higher numbers than they were before.
We really, really need to have this discussion, and the people who work for us need to provide the fucking numbers.