Today I saw a sign outside what was one of my favorite local Restaurants:
Our government doesn’t care about us. Open for business.
I understand the frustration. His pain is real. Yet, I’m frustrated, too. So, I’m tempted to post a sign right beside it:
And you don’t care about me.
I was on my way to the doctor’s office. Somehow I injured my ankle. That’s what happens when parts start to wear out. Injury without a cause. Frustrating.
In the doctor’s office, the receptionist said she didn’t think COVID-19 is that bad. Her logic was that masks seem to be keeping flu at bay, but COVID-19 is surging, and she doesn’t know anyone who died, but lots of people who have fallen ill. Then she quoted a statistic: someone dies from suicide every six seconds. She knew someone who died by their own hands.
I didn’t doubt her pain. I saw it on her face. If someone you love dies, the pain is the same, regardless of how the cause ranks.
I doubted her statistic. And I wondered about something else I heard. Has the number of suicides increased during the pandemic.
So I did a little research myself. Suicide often ranks in the top ten causes of death in the United States. Someone dies by their own hand about once every six minutes (not every six seconds.) That is really bad.
COVID-19 is the third most prevalent cause of death according to the CDC, with someone is dying every minute. COVID-19 deaths are over 271,000 now; greater than all the deaths in recent years due to diabetes, influenza and pneumonia, kidney disease, and suicide combined. Only heart disease and cancer surpass the number of COVID-19 deaths. If you don’t know someone who died from COVID-19, you are lucky.
The numbers are in, and according to the British Journal of Medicine, the rate of suicides has not changed. I like this quote in their article:
Supposition, however, is no replacement for evidence. (British Journal of Medicine)
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I’m frustrated. Just because you don’t know someone who died from COVID-19, doesn’t me it’s not happening at an unbelievable rate. I don’t know anyone who died during the Vietnam War, but I know they did.
So I’m channeling my frustration into a zen-like activities. Besides, the doctor put me in a boot for two weeks, so yoga is out of the question.
How about a word-search?
I found this on Twitter. (You can get your own printable word search from Classy Mommy.
