UN warns economic crisis could kill hundreds of thousands of children

[Bt1 5,213]

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-children-un/u-n-warns-economic-downturn-could-kill-hundreds-of-thousands-of-children-in-2020-idUSKBN21Y2X7

Also : tens of millions could fall into extreme poverty. And yet some people still dont understand that we aren't choosing right now between health and economy. 

[blankpaper 21]

I’ve been saying this whole time that an economic collapse will kill tons of people and there needs to be a trade off somewhere where we reopen and just deal with it. And people always come at me for caring more about money than lives, like going into a depression is going to just mean a little less spending money or something  The economy (or lack thereof) can be just as deadly 

[Bt1 5,213]

2 minutes ago, blankpaper said:

I’ve been saying this whole time that an economic collapse will kill tons of people and there needs to be a trade off somewhere where we reopen and just deal with it. And people always come at me for caring more about money than lives, like going into a depression is going to just mean a little less spending money or something  The economy (or lack thereof) can be just as deadly 

Yea. I dont understand how people cant think of the effects.

It's also important to note that this article talks only about children. 

[Guest]

15 minutes ago, blankpaper said:

I’ve been saying this whole time that an economic collapse will kill tons of people and there needs to be a trade off somewhere where we reopen and just deal with it. And people always come at me for caring more about money than lives, like going into a depression is going to just mean a little less spending money or something  The economy (or lack thereof) can be just as deadly 

I kinda agree, I dont think we can live this way till 2022 when vaccines are released.

But the economic crissis was going to happen regardless of the coronavirus. I remember months ago before the coronavirus, economics were saying a new great depression is inevitable. The coronavirus just made things wrose.

[HermioneT 1,998]

Never ever thought I would say that: At some point the effects of the recession because of the shutdown will certainly be worse than the effects of the virus. Poverty is still one of the main influences on health, education and life expectancy. 

People and politics are now asked to find creative and innovative ways to keep up everyday life with the virus around. We need to think outside of the usual boxes.

I personally think there could be way more done in that lane than just saying " this and that is now forbidden untill August" or "these shops will be closed untill May" - when in both cases the virus will still be there. 

For example: I can't see why schools shouldn't be starting again with a specialized concept. There are many options: split up classes into groups of five pupils and have them come separately some hours on two days. Prolong the terms over summer break to create enough time and space to teach only small portions of the school. Test all the teachers and kids consequently and cut in half the physical classes and do the rest online... For many many pupils even four hours school or two days a week are better than none or just online schooling. And the same goes for many economic fields.

[TheBannedShadow 3,424]

It breaks my heart that we as hummanity value the economic construct over the human essence. We are in a world wide crisis, instead of being brought together we continue on keeping the faulted system alive.

Covid19 has laid bare so many open wounds in society. Wounds that are apparently only going to get deeper.

It saddens me to the core.

[Chromatican 4,046]

If we reopen everything and a substantial part of the population dies the economy will be even more ****ed. 

Right now lives are more important.

[audrey horne 1,180]

I'm honestly not looking forward the end for the confinement period as precarity, inequalities, violence, stress will explode and most probably handled with extremes austerity and security mesures, leading to many deaths or miserable lives. 

[Bt1 5,213]

7 minutes ago, Chromatican said:

If we reopen everything and a substantial part of the population dies the economy will be even more ****ed. 

Right now lives are more important.

That's why we should reopen the economy with some measures, until we know for sure some other things that it will help us fight the virus.

A bad economy has its effects as you can see from this article, a death economy means something else.

 

[Economy 52,840]

8 hours ago, blankpaper said:

I’ve been saying this whole time that an economic collapse will kill tons of people and there needs to be a trade off somewhere where we reopen and just deal with it. And people always come at me for caring more about money than lives, like going into a depression is going to just mean a little less spending money or something  The economy (or lack thereof) can be just as deadly 

We need to balance things to look at net benefit

 

Closing concerts and clubs and large gatherings may make a big difference in rate of spread in relation to cost

 

Shutting down every small business probably not

 

Ppl have really criticized Sweden's version of the shutdown where the restrictions in place are less severe

 

But their Government has a point in my opinion. Their measures are actually sustainable and manageable over the long term. What were all doing cannot be sustained for the next year and a half without ending society as we know it

[Economy 52,840]

7 hours ago, Chromatican said:

If we reopen everything and a substantial part of the population dies the economy will be even more ****ed. 

Right now lives are more important.

Not really.

 

The bigger thing to consider when trying to balance things out with deaths is the lives lost themselves that can't be replaced

 

The purely economic impact from 2% of the population dying (especially with a disproportionately higher portion being old and retired that actually cost society in benefits and high healthcare costs) would not be anywhere near as big as the impacts from an ongoing shutdown

 

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying not to consider the death toll. But the death factor is more relevant from the standpoint of the value of human life. Purely from economic standpoint I wouldn't use the argument that it would f*ck the economy cuz I don't think it would

[Reginald 13,841]

7 hours ago, TMM90 said:

It breaks my heart that we as hummanity value the economic construct over the human essence. We are in a world wide crisis, instead of being brought together we continue on keeping the faulted system alive.

Covid19 has laid bare so many open wounds in society. Wounds that are apparently only going to get deeper.

It saddens me to the core.

This, this, this. We need to take a long, hard look at ourselves. 

[Economy 52,840]

7 hours ago, TMM90 said:

It breaks my heart that we as hummanity value the economic construct over the human essence. We are in a world wide crisis, instead of being brought together we continue on keeping the faulted system alive.

Covid19 has laid bare so many open wounds in society. Wounds that are apparently only going to get deeper.

It saddens me to the core.

It's so easy to focus on the deaths specifically from this now cuz it's all over the news and we are in a lockdown for it etc

 

But think about the daily deaths in Africa from poverty especially children... Think of the deaths even in developed world we could avoid if healthcare was better funded

 

The Trillions globally being used right now to try to keep economy alive. Think of how many lives die constantly we could save with the same amount of money being lost on this crisis

 

Humans are so good at focusing a lot on something new that's getting a lot of attention while ignoring old news

 

It sounds so Nobel to waste all our resources to save a few million... Meanwhile all this time we could have saved a much greater number of lives with the same amount of money

 

If it was truly about human life... We wouldn't only be concerned with an issue once it affects developed world tbh

 

We've had other issues killing lives that were cheaper to fix than this and u could save a greater number of people for the same cost. But because this is a new thing frightening people in the rich countries.... Suddenly its justified for us to go broke to save lives in developed nations since our lives seem to be of more value than elsewhere

[DeleteMyAccount 11,881]

Conservatives shouldn't be talking about lost lives since they've never give a hoot about "all lives" before. It's just a political stance much like standing against WHO in order to displace blame. I'm already seeing lots of negative response to Gaga's WHO benefit just because WHO is involved...

People can't talk about economic crisis' when Flint still doesn't have clean water, black men are being put in prisons and breaking up families thus creating economic toil, conservativess wanting to get rid of any type of healthcare for those in need, etc. 

There are crisis' happening every thing day and yet most people who suddenly care now would have never cared before. The true crisis is how badly western countries were prepared for this. Meanwhile, other countries like Australia are going back to normal. 

Not closing the country would've killed hundreds of thousands due to the virus along with the thousands of other deaths people wouldn't have cared about relating to poverty and economic struggles. 

But it's not surprising that the people leading this thread aren't seeing the bigger picture as usual. 

[Franz Ferdinand 2,359]

23 minutes ago, Economy said:

The purely economic impact from 2% of the population dying (especially with a disproportionately higher portion being old and retired that actually cost society in benefits and high healthcare costs) would not be anywhere near as big as the impacts from an ongoing shutdown

There are two issues here. One, 2% of the population dying over what period of time? You're right that maybe over a year the economic impact wouldn't be too high. Over a period of, say, 6-8 weeks, it does make a difference. The other big problem is that the 2% figure isn't correct. The mortality rate for COVID-19 has been estimated to be between 0.07-10%, depending on the health system and the population. With all restrictions lifted, I can guarantee you the death rate would be up to 15%, maybe even 20%. We simply do not have the resources to combat too many people getting sick at the same time, and this virus is particularly great at infecting people quietly and becoming severe quickly. An initial total lockdown was and in most countries still is necessary. Science needs to play catch-up. It really won't be safe to restart activities until testing capabilities are greatly expanded, and the number of infections dwindles to a manageable/traceable amount.