Coronavirus Prevention Measures Harmful but Necessary

A common refrain in some circles is that many of the preventive measures taken against the coronavirus are doing more damage than the disease itself.

I confess that I’ve wondered about this, too. A New York Times article said that hundreds of millions of people could die in developing countries as a result of “national lockdowns and social distancing measures [that] are drying up work and incomes, and are likely to disrupt agricultural production and supply routes.” Oxford University has warned of an increased number of suicides as a result of the economic fallout, a Reuters article alerted readers to the toll lockdowns have taken on mental health, Time magazine cited a recent spike in domestic-abuse cases, the BBC has warned that countless people are likely to die as a result of skipping out on medical screenings and vaccinations, and Unicef said plainly that the risk of children in developing countries dying from diseases other than COVID-19 now “far outweighs any threat presented by the coronavirus.”

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Daryl Austin

Daryl Austin is a freelance journalist and editor.

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A common refrain in some circles is that many of the preventive measures taken against the coronavirus are doing more damage than the disease itself.

I confess that I’ve wondered about this, too. A New York Times article said that hundreds of millions of people could die in developing countries as a result of “national lockdowns and social distancing measures [that] are drying up work and incomes, and are likely to disrupt agricultural production and supply routes.” Oxford University has warned of an increased number of suicides as a result of the economic fallout, a Reuters article alerted readers to the toll lockdowns have taken on mental health, Time magazine cited a recent spike in domestic-abuse cases, the BBC has warned that countless people are likely to die as a result of skipping out on medical screenings and vaccinations, and Unicef said plainly that the risk of children in developing countries dying from diseases other than COVID-19 now “far outweighs any threat presented by the coronavirus.”