Drug overdoses are soaring during the coronavirus pandemic • Hacker News Board

Re: Drug overdoses are soaring during the coronavirus pandemic

#101

Post by makomk » Thu, Jul 02, 2020, 11:18 PM UTC

victorhooi wrote: post #54

maerF0x0 wrote: post #18

Back when this started I made the claim that the long term consequences of lock down would exceed the short term benefits . Depression, Drugs overdose, murder (despair), Suicide, extra sedentary issues leading to diabetese/CVD, loss of jobs/meaning et al. I havent seen anyone do the math of the uptick there to talk about the marginal benefit of lockdown or the fact that this, once again, is a form of biased benefit f…

I hear these sorts of sentiments from the USA a lot - where apparently people are actively rioting and protesting against the health lockdown. I'm from Australia - where while we've had some grumblings about the health measures, on the whole, we've been pretty lucky. Our death toll is 104 people - which even though (comparative) low is still a tragedy. Yet the USA death toll is over 130,000 people - that is a terribl…

Australia is still much earlier on in its pandemic than the US and other countries. Wait until the lockdowns are national, and going on for months, with no prospect of any way out in sight.

Re: Drug overdoses are soaring during the coronavirus pandemic

#102

Post by kukx » Thu, Jul 02, 2020, 11:26 PM UTC

ianleeclark wrote: post #91

kukx wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not sure, if it is agreement or disagreement with my observation. And while I assume some people may genuinely be scared of the infection... It is hard not to notice that while the lockdown started the beaches were flooded with people. And I will not blame someone flipping burgers for preferring free money to their job. Having a low paid, boring job I would definitively prefer the free money and the free time. A…

> But it is nonetheless in the long term very harmful to the society and to the economic perspectives of normal people. Why is it harmful to the economic prospects of people? Our economy literally relies on consumption. High rates of consumption. > The free money will be paid for in the years to come and it will be a long lasting burden. First thing: I reject the notion of "free money." It is money that is borrowed b…

Well exactly, it is a borrowed money and everyone will have to pay it back in some way, for example through taxation or more likely via inflation (things will get more expensive, so people will be able to afford less). The weakest, poorest will experience the problem the most, but it will affect everyone. As I mentioned, maybe there will be some great advancement in productivity and it will not be as severe. But it is a gamble and not a wise strategy for the nation.

The debt can be written off. But it will have consequences. It means no more living on debt, because no lender will be willing to lend anymore. It will be very bad for the economy, at least in the short term (who knows how many years). However, it may lead to a more sound economy in the long term, assuming the capitalism survives.

Re: Drug overdoses are soaring during the coronavirus pandemic

#103

Post by chongli » Thu, Jul 02, 2020, 11:29 PM UTC

Mirioron wrote: post #72

chongli wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also knew someone who built an app to try to help depressed people. She was pretty serious about it. As a person who has battled depression off and on, I also found it difficult to believe someone would take such an app seriously.

It depends on what the app does though. One of the ways people cope with things like that is escapism. If your app can provide that then it can help some people. Eg a game or an app for stories, jokes etc. Another thing that can help with depression is exercise. But it's difficult to exercise while depressed. If you can somehow build an app that tricks people into exercising (like Pokémon Go "tricked" people into goi…

Those are good all good ideas. This was not what she built though. She had a chat bot that was supposed to talk to depressed people. The idea really did not appeal to me at all.

Re: Drug overdoses are soaring during the coronavirus pandemic

#104

Post by gliese1337 » Thu, Jul 02, 2020, 11:30 PM UTC

WilTimSon wrote: post #4

Hardly a surprise, I'm sure suicide rates and alcohol consumption are going up as well. It's a combination of loneliness, lack of supervision (can't find a better word, I mean someone who could help in case of an overdose), despair about the future. This pandemic is unprecedented for the modern people, many don't have the means to deal with it psychologically.

They absolutely are. My wife is an ICU nurse, former ER nurse, and they've seen way more cases of purposeful suicide attempts and alcohol poisoning in the last few months.

Re: Drug overdoses are soaring during the coronavirus pandemic

#105

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jul 02, 2020, 11:35 PM UTC

nostromo wrote: post #83

maerF0x0 wrote: post #18

Back when this started I made the claim that the long term consequences of lock down would exceed the short term benefits . Depression, Drugs overdose, murder (despair), Suicide, extra sedentary issues leading to diabetese/CVD, loss of jobs/meaning et al. I havent seen anyone do the math of the uptick there to talk about the marginal benefit of lockdown or the fact that this, once again, is a form of biased benefit f…

WHO has predicted hundreds of millions of people will risk starvation this year due to the economic ramifications of lockdowns. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/pandemic-could-mean-260-mi...

[deleted]

Re: Drug overdoses are soaring during the coronavirus pandemic

#106

Post by azinman2 » Thu, Jul 02, 2020, 11:39 PM UTC

Tiktaalik wrote: post #69

Gotta love how everyone is applauding the wisdom of Dr. Bonnie Henry in her success in keeping the coronavirus under control in British Columbia and that of the government for following all her recommendations, and yet when Dr. Henry suggests that to tackle the opioid overdose epidemic, that BC needs to decriminalize drugs and create a safe supply of drugs for the addicted, suddenly everyone stops listening to her. D…

It's easy to blame people for their own choice in doing drugs. Or get numb to it as isn't a new issue. But a pandemic causing an excess of deaths and huge uncertainly that could infect every person just for living a normal life is fundamentally different.

My prediction is that America seems unable/unwilling to do what's required to stem covid (lack of federal leadership is just horrific here), and as such, America will chose money over lives. It always has. And at that point, sucks to be you if you got covid and die from it -- it'll just be like any other death in America.... largely ignored as a collective.

Re: Drug overdoses are soaring during the coronavirus pandemic

#107

Post by delecti » Thu, Jul 02, 2020, 11:40 PM UTC

Darmody wrote: post #44

nxc18 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

States have been chomping at the bit to end their lockdowns. The fact that cases are spiking again is precisely because states were too eager to end their lockdowns. China had a brutal lockdown early and thanks to that they are now largely back in business. Anti-lockdown sentiment early on is precisely the reason the US has had to prolong its suffering. The reason long lockdowns are happening is because we can’t must…

Let's not forget the massive protests. No matter if you agree with them or not. Thousands of people together on the streets with no security distance between them makes things worse.

The data shows that it hasn't in fact been making things worse. The protestors are largely all wearing masks, and that makes a pretty enormous difference.

Re: Drug overdoses are soaring during the coronavirus pandemic

#108

Post by xienze » Thu, Jul 02, 2020, 11:42 PM UTC

victorhooi wrote: post #54

maerF0x0 wrote: post #18

Back when this started I made the claim that the long term consequences of lock down would exceed the short term benefits . Depression, Drugs overdose, murder (despair), Suicide, extra sedentary issues leading to diabetese/CVD, loss of jobs/meaning et al. I havent seen anyone do the math of the uptick there to talk about the marginal benefit of lockdown or the fact that this, once again, is a form of biased benefit f…

I hear these sorts of sentiments from the USA a lot - where apparently people are actively rioting and protesting against the health lockdown. I'm from Australia - where while we've had some grumblings about the health measures, on the whole, we've been pretty lucky. Our death toll is 104 people - which even though (comparative) low is still a tragedy. Yet the USA death toll is over 130,000 people - that is a terribl…

> Yet the USA death toll is over 130,000 people - that is a terrible thing =(. I do not get how the USA can be so blase about it.

Because on a per capita basis the US actually has fewer deaths per million than multiple European countries? Ask yourself how e.g. Belgians can be so blasé about this, they’re doing worse than us in this regard!

Or maybe it’s because deaths have dropped dramatically from their peak and continue to do so?

Or maybe it’s because tens of thousands of people die every year of the flu in each and every western country and to the US, 130K Covid deaths is like 3 or 4 years worth of flu deaths, which no one really cares about?

This is not the Black Death. People don’t care about it because it’s still exceedingly rare to die of it, that’s basically all there is to it.

Re: Drug overdoses are soaring during the coronavirus pandemic

#109

Post by mythrwy » Thu, Jul 02, 2020, 11:47 PM UTC

ansible wrote: post #81

mnm1 wrote: post #31

People are desperate. This is to be expected. Along with unemployment, loneliness, hopelessness, helplessness, stress, fear, and anxiety have all risen greatly. This is how people cope when they are not in control of their lives and especially when they don't see a path to regain that control. I would expect more of this. Drug overdoses were already a huge issue because of societal issues. Now, they will be even more…

> It's a nationwide disaster that people are simply not ready to deal with. Many people here have no idea what suffering is and therefore, they don't know how to suffer or how to get through such times. Suffering is externalized onto minorities and other unwanted people in society so that the well off don't have to deal with it. Now everyone's suffering and many simply can't cope with the suffering or with the additi…

It's possible the history books in 50 years will say a bunch of kids with unarticulated and poorly thought out grievances tried to burn down the country after being cooped up for 3 months and ingesting too much propaganda from Reddit and the public school system resulting in the re-election of Donald Trump.

One never knows when one sets out to be a hero what the end result will be.

Re: Drug overdoses are soaring during the coronavirus pandemic

#110

Post by twsttest » Thu, Jul 02, 2020, 11:59 PM UTC

mythrwy wrote: post #109

ansible wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's a nationwide disaster that people are simply not ready to deal with. Many people here have no idea what suffering is and therefore, they don't know how to suffer or how to get through such times. Suffering is externalized onto minorities and other unwanted people in society so that the well off don't have to deal with it. Now everyone's suffering and many simply can't cope with the suffering or with the additi…

It's possible the history books in 50 years will say a bunch of kids with unarticulated and poorly thought out grievances tried to burn down the country after being cooped up for 3 months and ingesting too much propaganda from Reddit and the public school system resulting in the re-election of Donald Trump. One never knows when one sets out to be a hero what the end result will be.

We try to recreate the archetypes from the past. Our heroes. Their struggles.

What about when we try to fit those archetypes over a reality that is inappropriately matched to them? What about when we seek out grievances where there are none just because they have a hint of resembling the past?

The past shapes the present in this way.