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I was undecided on whether to write about the pandemic but given Melbourne, Australia has just entered it’s 6th lockdown I thought it was a good time to think through some of the issues surrounding lockdowns.
Firstly, let’s discuss the purpose of a lockdown, which is to prevent the spread of COVID-19 by reducing the transmission risk. It makes sense that if you isolate people and/or families from one another that you significantly reduce the viruses’ ability to spread throughout the community. Less transmission means less infections, less hospitalisations and less death.
So lockdowns sound great as a way to curb COVID-19 but what are the other consequences of lockdowns? The one that gets the most airtime is the impact on the economy, as lockdowns mean many businesses have to close or have reduced income. To combat the economic impact of lockdowns, the Government has provided relief through programs that help subsidise wages or encourage consumer spending. It is debatable as to how effective these programs have been but at least there are programs that are put in place to try and stimulate the economy to offset the impact of lockdowns.
I would like to spend some time thinking through another impact of lockdowns that I don’t think gets the airtime it deserves: the impact of isolation.
Individuals have a multitude of different circumstances that make up their day to day life. Let’s take the time to recognise that some may not have the best circumstance and that isolation could have drastic ramifications. Take for instance people living through domestic abuse that now have to be isolated in their situation. Take for instance people with mental health issues that are reliant on the community for support. Take for instance young children that are just beginning to learn social skills and develop their first friendships. Take for instance the average husband and wife that are now at each others’ wits’ end whilst trying to work from home and manage their kid’s home learning. Take for instance the impact on children’s education from having non-qualified parents teaching their children instead of qualified teachers. I’m sure this list can keep going.
In Japan, for example, in October 2020 more people died from suicide in that month than died from COVID for the whole year (more than 2000 people committed suicide)! Japan historically has higher suicide rates than the rest of the world but the increase in October was significant (the highest since May 2015). There is evidence to suggest the increase came as a direct result of lockdown measures that were put into place and the flow on impact it had on individual’s levels of anxiety and mental health.
In Australia, the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) conducted a survey of 362 domestic family violence agencies and individuals nationally and found startling results during the lockdown period from June to August 2020. There was a significant increase in new clients reported by the majority of agencies with many agencies reporting an increase in controlling and coercive behaviours. Both the number of incidents and the severity increased during the lockdown period. Overall there was a 67% increase in new clients with 87% of clients reporting increased isolation as a result of controlling behaviours.
These data points only cover a few of the ‘hidden’ impacts of lockdowns but we must challenge ourselves and ask what are the real cost of lockdowns? Do we actually save more lives than would be lost to COVID-19 through a lockdown or are we just trading those lives for other, potentially more damaging, impacts?
Whilst the number of cases and deaths due to COVID-19 are closely monitored and reported, the other ‘hidden’ costs are not. How many lives have been lost to suicide or have been long term or permanently impacted due to the multitude of potential issues that come from isolation? I fear lockdowns are only trading benefits against a ‘known’ set of statistics for detriments against an ‘unknown’ set of statistics!
