A recent report has found that 92% of people feel they have lost connection with others by not meeting in person. The survey, conducted by the Christian Conference Trust, revealed that almost all of the churches and organisations asked said that they fear they have lost connection with parishioners and community members as a direct result of restrictions.
This is the latest in a long line of research that has similarly tragic findings: the human cost of the Covid-19 pandemic will be far greater than Professor Whitty’s facts and figures would have us believe.
Over the last week, we have seen a decline in the number of new cases each day. At the time of writing, Coronavirus cases in England have fallen 17% in the past week, with (only? Surely not) 25,308 new cases as of Wednesday. It is even more poignant that this week the UK surpassed 100,000 deaths. If these figures are considered reliable, then it would appear that the much-discussed “second wave” is beginning to ebb. I only question the authenticity of the statistics because twice during this pandemic I have been hospitalised in an Acute Medical Unit. AMU beds are used by the government as an indicator and therefore twice I have been counted as a statistic as a hospital bed despite testing negative for Covid-19 on both occasions.
Twice I have been counted as a statistic as a hospital bed despite testing negative for Covid-19 on both occasions
That said, it is clear that the pandemic is out of all control: unmanageable by the government and beyond restraint of the individual. The number of infections may be reducing, but it is more than likely that the long-term costs are varying and multiplying with more alacrity than the virus itself.
Let us consider just a few examples. Between the months of March and June last year, police recorded 259,324 cases of domestic abuse, a rise of 7% on the same period in the previous year (many, many cases go unreported). The UK”s Office for National Statistics (ONS) has not released statistics on suicide since 2018, but a representative of suicide prevention charity PAPYRUS told the Catholic Herald, “we have seen a direct link between lockdown and how young people’s lives are affected.
When the second lockdown was announced, there was a spike in the amount of contact we received and there was a second spike when the Prime Minister announced the changes in regulations at Christmas.” Although it may seem obvious, I asked him why. “People with suicidal thoughts are not getting access to the face-to-face sessions they had before, they are getting digital access but there’s a lot less value in that – the clinicians can’t see people are struggling in the same way that they can from across the table.”
Radiotherapy courses fell by 20% last April, 6% last May and 12% last June compared with corresponding months in 2019.
Further investigations led me to my niece about home-schooling. “I can’t see my friends, I can only see them on the iPad” she said with as much resignation as a five year old can muster. An English teacher at a local secondary school tells me that she believes the detrimental effects on young people’s education will be irreversible. “Despite our best efforts, even the students who are engaged with their online learning are receiving significantly less input than they would in the classroom.”
And then we have the medical costs. Oncology publication The Lancet has found that “the indirect impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on cancer outcomes is of increasing concern.” It is difficult to predict what exactly this means in the long term, but information such as radiotherapy courses fell by 20% last April, 6% last May and 12% last June compared with corresponding months in 2019 – we can see that somewhere along the way, we may be prioritising Covid patients over cancer patients.
It makes for grim reading. Worse yet is the thought that whilst the number of coronavirus cases here in the UK may be declining, greater ills will surely follow.
Constance Watson is assistant editor of the Catholic Herald. She also writes for Daily Mail, The Daily Telegraph, Literary Review, The Oldie and others.
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