Grand Rapids Reporter

COVID-19-related lockdowns are incurring public health costs that their proponents may not have considered, including increased rates of suicidal thoughts and lower life expectancy for children, according to reporting by Michigan Capitol Confidential.

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) recently issued a lockdown that went into effect on Nov. 18 and will be in effect through Tuesday, Dec. 8. The lockdown imposed increased restrictions on businesses as well as public and private gatherings.

The nonprofit think tank that helped create The Great Barrington Declaration says that lockdowns incur personal, social and economic costs to residents — costs that restriction advocates have largely ignored. "Current lockdown policies are producing devastating effects on short- and long-term public health," the declaration states.

Those costs have been heavy, according to a report released by the American Institute for Economic Research (AIER), which presented research done by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) and organizations documenting the adverse impacts of lockdowns.

“In the debate over coronavirus policy, there has been far too little focus on the costs of lockdowns," stated the AIER on its website. "It’s very common for the proponents of these interventions to write articles and large studies without even mentioning the downside."

According to research done by the CDC, 40% of U.S. adults reported struggling with mental health and substance abuse last June. An August report found that the number of adults who had thoughts of suicide increased from 4.3% in 2018 to 10.7% in 2020 and that 25.5% of people aged 18 to 24 had considered suicide. A November report found that that the share of emergency room visits related to the mental health of children aged 5 to 11 had increased by 24% and was up 31% among 12- to 17-year-olds.

The JAMA reported that a total of 24.2 million children ages 5 to 11 were enrolled in public schools that were closed during the pandemic and made estimates of expected reduced life expectancy for the students affected.