Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
The forgotten victims of COVID-19: 7 groups punished by lockdowns
The forgotten victims of COVID-19: 7 groups punished by lockdowns
Apr 2, 2025 2:00 AM

The pandemic’s trail of destruction reaches far further than the death toll of the virus.

Read More…

COVID-19 is the most deadly global pandemic since the 1918 influenza outbreak, claiming more than 5 million lives worldwide and counting. Well over 700,000 of these deaths occurred in the United States, which parable to the number of lives lost in the American Civil War.

Yet the pandemic’s trail of destruction reaches even further than this death toll. Millions of Americans have suffered as a result of lockdowns and other mitigation efforts. Here are some categories of forgotten victims, whose stories should also be heard.

1. The Untreated

The CDCfoundthat by June 30, 2020, more than 40 percent of U.S. adults had avoided medical care due to concerns over COVID-19. In other cases, people who sought medical attention had their treatments postponed. Delayed treatment causes known conditions to worsen and prevents the discovery of new conditions.The Washington Postreportsthat a surge of advanced illnesses came to light in the spring of 2021, many of which developed due to inattention in 2020. Cancer screenings and treatments, for example, dramatically decreased during the pandemic. A study published inJCO Clinical Care Informaticsfoundthat “screenings for breast, colon, prostate, and lung cancers were lower by 85%, 75%, 74%, and 56%, respectively” in April 2020. The authors of the study conclude that these delays in treatment may “increase cancer morbidity and mortality for years e.”

2. The Substance Abusers

There were also over 93,000 drug overdose deaths in 2020, according toCDC data, a staggering 29.4 percent increase from 2019. Addiction Centerexplainsthat “[a]ddiction, often referred to as the disease of isolation, has been affected by strict social distancing guidelines, working from home, and other factors.” Alcohol abuse also sharply increased in 2020. A RAND Corporationstudyfound that the frequency of heavy drinking among women rose 41 percent during the pandemic. Other researchersfoundthat participants who reported high degrees of stress due to COVID-19 consumed “significantly more alcohol than participants who did not report these high levels of stress.”

3. The Depressed

Depression among US adultstripledduring the pandemic, according to one study, skyrocketing from 8.5 percent to 27.8 percent of those surveyed. Census Bureau data likewiseindicatesan exploding mental health crisis, with 41.1 percent of adults reporting symptoms of anxiety disorder or depressive disorder in January pared to 11.0 percent before the pandemic. These numbers suggest that tens of millions of Americans acquired depression during and likely as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak and ensuing lockdowns. More than 26 percent of adults reported having a trauma-and stressor-related disorder attributable to the pandemic,accordingto a CDC study. The same survey found that over a quarter of people ages 18–24 had seriously considered suicide in June 2020.

4. The Abused

Domestic violenceis being calleda “pandemic within the COVID-19 pandemic,” with a systematic review of studiesconcludingthat “[i]ncidents of domestic violence increased in response to stay-at-home/lockdown orders.” One studyexplainsthat “stay-at-home orders may create a worst-case scenario for individuals suffering from DV” as isolation “may expose or worsen vulnerabilities due to a lack of established social support systems.”

5. The Jobless

More than 20 million Americans lost their jobs during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, surging theunemployment rateto 14.7 percent, the highest rate since the Great Depression. Unemployment is steadily declining now, but nearly 200,000 businesses closed permanently due to the pandemic,accordingto an estimate from the Federal Reserve Board, and many laid-off Americans remain jobless.

6. The Isolated Elderly

Many nursing home residents were also separated from their spouses, families, and even co-residents for over a year. Extreme isolation leads to mental and physical degradation, which theAssociated Pressestimatesresulted in more than 40,000 excess “neglect deaths” from March to November 2020.

7. The Untaught

When schools closed, online education largely failed to adequately replace in-person learning. Research from NWEAdiscoveredthat students in the 2020–21 school year fell behind 8–12 percentile points in math and 3–6 points in pared to historical trends. They concluded, moreover, that “American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN), Black, and Latinx students, as well as students in high-poverty schools, were disproportionately impacted.” Beyond a reduction in learning, another studyfoundthat school closures “contribute to stress in parents and children” and can “threaten child growth and development.”

The ways society has suffered from the pandemic go on and on. To name just a few more:

Mask wearing has further isolated millions of Americans who are deaf or hard of hearing and depend on lip-reading munication.Many homeless shelterscut their capacities while other charities serving the homeless population closed their doors. More people slept on the street as a result, and homeless deathsincreased.Electronic device usage dramatically increased during the pandemic, causing a variety of health problems, includingsleep disturbances andvision problems.Many prisonssuspended all visitations, making life even harder for an often-overlooked vulnerable population.

Some of these costs were preventable; others may not have been. Some are short-term problems; others will have lasting effects. Many of them resulted from lockdowns, restrictions, and fear-inducing messaging, illustrating how the way we respond to outbreaks can cause additional problems.

Human beings are not merely bodies subject to viral infection, but social and spiritual beings, dependent on established ways of life and vulnerable to fear and isolation. Culture and society evolved to fulfill the many physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of the population, and huge changes to this way of life cause unintended effects across the entire ecosystem. The past 20 months have demonstrated this more than ever.

As the virus continues to spread around the world, we must do what we can to protect people from all of the present dangers, including the immediate health risks of COVID-19 and as many of the piled above as possible.

May our eyes recognizeallthe victims of this pandemic, our hearts break for them, our minds learn from their stories, and, most importantly, our actions prevent future disasters of this scale.

This essay appeared originally on the FEE Stories website on Nov. 19, 2021, and is republished here with FEE’s permission.

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
To avoid a demographic winter, Europe must understand human dignity
Like all of Europe, Poland is suffering from a steep demographic crisis. Despite a relatively large (European) population andan expansive land mass that serves as a bridge between Europe and Asia, Poland has a fertility rate lower than that of China – a nation that only recently relaxed its One-Child Policy. (Beijing now enforces its two-child policy no less ruthlessly.) Several European (and non-European) nations have tried to incentivize their citizens to have more children through various means: taxpayer subsidies...
Samuel Gregg on the legacy of the late Michael Novak
In a recent article for Public Discourse, Samuel Gregg articulates the great impact that the late Michael Novak had both on him personally, but also in promoting free market economics and moral living for a greater, more virtuous world. He says: When news came of the death of the theologian and philosopher Michael Novak, the loss was felt in a particularly sharp way by those of us who knew him personally. Like many people of all ages, I was fortunate...
5 Facts about Washington’s Birthday
Today is the U.S. federal holiday known as Washington’s Birthday (not “Presidents Day—see item #1). In honor of George Washington’s birthday, here are 5 things you should know about the day set aside for our America’s premier founding father. 1. Although some state and local governments and private businesses refer to today as President’s Day, the legal public holiday is designated as “Washington’s Birthday” in section 6103(a) of title 5 of the United States Code. The observance of Washington’s birthday...
Explainer: What is the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA)?
On Wednesday, February 15, the European Parliament approved theComprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), a free trade agreement abolishing most trade restrictions between the European Union and Canada. Negotiators hammered out the 1,600-page agreement over the course of seven years before Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and European Council President Donald Tusk signed CETA last October 30. Then, the pact swept through the Strasbourg-based European Parliament by a vote of408-254 with 33 abstentions last week. What does it do? CETA...
Religion & Liberty: Fighting for totalitarianism’s victims
The unofficial theme for Religion & Liberty’s first issue in 2017 is despotism. In this issue, you’ll find stories from the Soviet Union, a close look into the North Korea regime and a reexamination of Hitler’s rise to power. The cover story is an interview with human rights expert Suzanne Scholte, who discusses her passion for fighting the sadistic rule of Kim Jong Un and working with North Korean defectors. After 20 years fighting for those who don’t enjoy freedom...
Why is customer service better at Starbucks than at the DMV?
Note: This is post #22 in a weekly video series on basic microeconomics. Prices are signals that indicate to suppliers how much is being demanded. So what happens when the government puts a cap on the price that can be charged for a product or service? Two effects are shortages and lower quality. In this video by Marginal Revolution University, economist Alex Tabarrok explains why this happens. (If you find the pace of the videos too slow, I’d mend watching...
How Michael Novak changed your life
Michael Novak died last Thursday at the age of 83. In a remembrance for The Hill, Acton Institute President Rev. Robert A. Sirico reflects on the passing of his friend and mentor, and how he changed all of our lives: Some of my most memorable conversations took place over what would e effectively known as the Salon Novak: dinner parties that Karen and I would orchestrate where we witnessed Clare Boothe Luce contending with Jack Kemp and Bill Bennett on...
Toward a Christian view of economics
Embed from Getty Images Many Christians assume that the Bible has nothing at all to say about economics, says theologian Albert Mohler, but a biblical worldview actually has a great deal to teach us on economic matters. Mohler outlines twelve theses for what a Christian understanding of economics must do. Here are three of them: 1. It must have God’s glory as its greatestaim. For Christians, all economic theory begins with an aim to glorify God (1 Cor. 10:31). We...
5 Facts about Michael Novak
The theologian, scholar, and writer Michael Novak died yesterday at the age of 83. Novak was one of the most influential Catholic thinkers of his generation, and an indefatigable champion of free enterprise, democracy, and liberty. Here are five facts you should know about Novak: Michael Novak / Acton Institute 1. At age fourteen Novak entered Holy Cross Seminary of the Congregation of Holy Cross at Notre Dame with the intention of ing a Catholic priest. From there, he went...
When morality evaporates
When Tzvetan Todorov died on Feb. 7, the Bulgarian/French philosopher and literary critic was lamented only in certain intellectual ghettoes. To the men and women eulogizing Todorov in these circles, he was feted properly if not stingily, which is most unfortunate. Finite word counts are a harsh mistress when a fellow writer endeavors to create a fully realized portrait of his or her subject. Todorov leaves behind a body of historical and moral philosophy that connects the dots between the...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved