Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
Covid-19 in TN: A Spike in Suicides
I understand that Covid-19 is a deadly virus, and we need to take it very seriously. However, the blunt approach of shutting the entire country down is deadly as well, and that fact has to be recognized. To illustrate what I mean in real time, I point to Knox County in Eastern Tennessee where all the students have been sent home from University of Tennesse, and the world has essentially been shut down like everywhere else outside of the business that still buzzes inside various Walmarts and Krogers.
This is not the epicenter of Covid-19 in the Volunteer State. That is Nashville, a city that clearly annoyed Mother Nature in some way because she started gut-punching the poor capital way back when this virus still had something to do with Wuhan. The vast majority of the state’s almost 2,000 Covid-positive patients live in or around Nashville, which has never had time to recover from the slashes made to its belly by tornadoes.
Knoxville is further east, nestled near the Great Smoky Mountains, a relatively small city known for being a college town. Knox County has currently identified a total of 41 Covid-19 cases, and no one wants that number to go any higher, so self-isolation is the name of the game. But that is only part of the story of how people are interacting with this pandemic.
One should also be aware that during just this past week in which the strategy has been one of isolation and economic shutdown, local officials dealt with nine suicides in Knox county, eight of which occurred in a window of 48 hours. To put this in perspective, in 2019, there were only 83 suicides in Knox County for the entire year.
Of course, we do not know why these people felt such despair that they took such drastic measures, but we should look at that number and consider what it might mean as it happens at this moment, especially since only seven people have died in the entire state of Tennessee of Covid-19.
I don’t have the answers about what the government should do here, but I also don’t think despair at this moment is irrational or without consequence. I would simply like to know that all the ramifications of various policies are being as seriously considered as containment of the pandemic itself. Everything that we do has the potential to thrust darkness into the lives of others.
Published in General
Ah Geez. That’s awful. Probably not the best time to inject politics into this but didn’t the New York Times take Trump to task because the President had pointed out the potential for suicides?
I would not be surprised if that’s the case, but I don’t actually know if that’s true. If it is, it’s silly that they would take that approach. I guess they all feel super secure in their livelihoods? In their reactions if that was yanked away from them without warning? I’m not sure I understand that position. It’s certainly one of political opportunism.
Regardless, the mayor of Knox County called the spike “alarming” and is beginning to consider how to balance the pandemic with the appropriate economic policy. But Knox County is a small place, so this spike is super hard to overlook. I wonder if such statistics are noticed in larger cities???? I think we need more tailoring to take Covid seriously while taking data like this seriously, too.
Probably a few people are totally terrified of having to go to the hospital right now too. I wonder what the ages were. The hospital stories are enough to scare anyone.
4 billion people on lockdown and domestic violence is flaring up all around the world. Many sociologists will have something important to write about for the next 24 months.
My father has cancer, and he and my mother are checking into a hotel on-site *right now* in one of the largest cancer hospitals in the country. They are having to wait for the managers to clean their room as the cleaning staff is not working, and most of the rooms are empty.
Tell me how that works.
All the people with cancer are just staying home????
My brother had cancer surgery scheduled for last week, they postponed it until June, now I hear the hospitals in the area furloughed nurses due to lack of patients.
It makes no sense to me. The type of cancer my father has is much more deadly than Covid per ANY numbers. I’m so grateful he is not in the midst of a round of chemo because my mother can’t go into his appointments—if they happen—tomorrow. Oi! It’s crazy to me.
Also, I don’t “like” what’s happening for your brother. I just am pressing the thumbs up to acknowledge that I think that’s horrible.
The holidays have a spike in suicide due to social isolation, so that may also be a factor here.
Makes sense. I can’t remember which podcast on Ricochet made the point that the pounds are empty of stray dogs in NY because people want some companionship.
Knoxville is, of course, home to a massive university – UT. Were any of the suicides college students? College kids seem more susceptible than ever to depression. I’m hearing from friends in higher ed that students are feeling overwhelmed by the situation.
That is a really good question, but they haven’t said the “who” part of “how many.”
Also, the college campus is a ghost town. I run through there almost every day, and it’s not at all hard to “socially distance” because all of the dorms are closed, and the only thing that I can tell has been left open at all is the UT Law Library because some harried looking law student–at least he looked like a law student–popped out of it one day. The houses that would be occupied by students look empty, too, so I don’t know if kids just never returned after Spring Break? I don’t know when they will be allowed to get their things? I just don’t know.
I teach for a community college in Texas, and I am just staying put here because… well… I can’t see any of my kids in person. It’s all shifted to online. As my courses are definitely not designed to be online, I’m being… creative. I’m also, I’ll admit, not going to be grading in the same way I did pre-virus. I dunno. I’m doing my best, but I can’t say my class from this point forward is going to be the same quality in general. (It’s not going to be.)
Places across the USA where citizens are just now recovering from weather tragedies foisted on us six months to even two years ago are not prepared to do the bidding of the “COVID Crisis Phenomena Experts.”
My small business has been in economic recovery mode since Dec 2019. Now we are being slammed by the fact that clients, although still around, have cut back their spending on our products by 50%.
I totally relate to the idea of just taking the eternal dirt nap. I am tired of struggling. I am sick of attempting to scale the eternal mountain of poverty, and just when in clear sight of the top of the peak where easier times are ahead, either another monster fire, or now this stupid crisis rears its head.
Those of us who feel this way already are not your weaker people – not at all. If you are sitting pretty with your suburban home stocked not only with foods of all sorts, but a double wide freezer packed to the gills, it may be hard to even believe the type of horrendous situation some people face. My one bright spot: Living rurally in a safe neighborhood, I am at least physically safe.
But I have one friend on social media a lot who is not that lucky. Her normal day to day struggle is with her neurological problems. Of course, when neurological problems are already overwhelming, when your ability to work in non-existent, you tend to be poor.
She has ended up in a very bad impoverished neighborhood, in a big city. Her daily posts reflect how she is absolutely terrified of the change in her already hard scrabble conditions. We are two weeks into this, and there are roving gangs of men out beyond her front and back doors, and she is torn between the desire to hide so no one knows she has remained in her home, so maybe they will not enter. On the other hand, if it does appear she is home, maybe her presence will deter robbers coming in and taking the few nice things she owns. definitely she in between a rock and a hard place.
Now it looks like we are stuck in this situation until June 1st!
The economic ramifications for those of us who are struggling are tremendous. And it is not going to be easy for Mr Trump either. Some economists are staking their reputations on the fact of how for every one percent rise in unemployment, 40,000 Americans will die. Already it is being predicted that there could be a 20 to 30% rise in unemployment. Do the math. The next six months are not going to be very pretty.
The freedom vs. security debate is probably going to have to be addressed long before six months are over, and may end up, as was being discussed last week, going on a state-by-state or even a county-by-county metric. And the debate will center around what is the level of risk the American public is willing to accept from COVID-19, where in some locations the risk will be considered low enough to reopen, while in others the higher risk could end up keeping shutdowns in place though the summer.
Those people who don’t like a crazy patchwork of state and local regulation are probably not inclined to like a crazy patchwork of state and local openings and shutdowns due to COVID-19.
As I said on another thread, you can even see that divide here in Texas, where many urbanites within the Texas Triangle are calling for top-down control, and a statewide shelter-in-place order for COVID-19 as opposed to Gov. Abbott’s current restrictions, which have been limited because only about a quarter of Texas counties have reported a positive coronavirus case. I’d guess when the rollback finally comes you’re going to see the same type of divide, with urban residents who are in closer proximity to others being more vocal about security, while those in less-densely populated areas will be more interested in freedom (which also sort of lines up with the urban-rural divide nationally, where the suburbs are the deciding factor on whether or not a state is Red or Blue).
As someone said, this is a virus with a public relation promotion. I understand it is serious, that those getting ill can get very ill fast and recovery takes time. But we are gettting some data that is showing who the most vulnerable are, and that should help us adjust our tactics.
Sometimes no one knows why someone killed themselves, but it seems to come from a feeling of despair and abandonment; a loneliness even in the midst others. It is a horrifying thing for families to deal with. Hopefully, this is not a pattern here or anywhere.
California is being run into the ground by Democratic demagogues, so I hold out little hope of escaping the most dire of contingency “plans.” I was so hoping our company’s economic recovery would continue and we could soon get out of Chairman Mao land. On local FB chat groups, the Dems are absolutely over the top on how we are all gonna die. To the point that even more sensible participants are shouted down by what can only be described as thought police. When three friends were discussing how nice it would be to forget about restrictions and see each other, our normal human fantasy was attacked as though we were terrorists discussing ingredients and methods for bombing the State Capital.
Not to mention that if they graduate soon, they’ll be entering the worst job market in decades.
Aside from suicides and domestic violence incidents potentially going up, the other thing to look for will be if drug use also takes a spike up, based on the reality that if you don’t give people something to do with their time, people will find something to do with their time, even if that means finding ways to get outside and get something, so they can go home and pass the time by getting high.
(And on a side note to that, the $1,200 payment people are going to get is going to be a short-term, small-scale test of progressives’ idea of giving people a guaranteed income, without trying to give them an actual job to go to. It’s not a lot of money, but it will be interesting to see how many people don’t use the money for what it’s intended, which is to make ends meet until the COVID-19 shutdowns come to an end.)
Oh, my goodness, @caroljoy, I feel your frustration and pain. I hadn’t even really thought about people in urban environments. I mean, Knoxville is an urban environment, I suppose, but it’s a place with very low crime, relatively speaking. Winston Churchill once said, “When you’re going through hell, keep going.” I think it’s good advice.
I promise I am thinking right now the most about people like you and your friend, even though I certainly don’t want people to die from a virus. Hang in there. I’ll buy something from your business if it’s online. Just post the store!
My husband found some article about the two businesses that are experiencing spikes in sales: ammo and marijuana. Neither surprise me.
I also want to say that I “like” people’s comments when I am the op-ed writer to acknowledge that I read them, and I appreciate your thoughts/ideas. I can’t say I actually “like” all of these comments because they make me sad. NOT per anything said that is “wrong” or “bad” but real. I know it’s not my fault, but I am still so sorry for all of it.
Pm will be sent to you later this afternoon. And thanks!!
Some days it’s hard to be a liberal, populist conservative, but there are always people like that who help me stay on track.
So I happen to be in Knoxville right now, holed up in a hotel because my husband just got a new job here (he’s working from “home”) and we have to find a house pronto. The realtor and I are traveling in separate vehicles and if we go in an occupied house, we are wearing gloves and booties, using copious amounts of hand sanitizer after the new houses, etc. The hotel has only 2 floors open, no breakfast or other prepared food, and housekeeping only on request. I think there are possibly a dozen cars in the parking lot. But hey, it’s quiet!
Oh, my goodness!!! We could have lunch except… well… pandemic.
There are a few restaurants that are still trying to hang on by doing curbside pickup though, and we’ve been making the rounds with those as much as we can to support the economy.
There’s one bar next to the Black Horse–which offers a good hamburger in its own right–that will mix drinks for you to go. I got three daiquiris in what looked like a pop bottle a couple of nights hence.
Pete’s was pretty good for breakfast.
These are downtown.
Amen. Testify, sister!
Yeah. I’m honest.
What? Can I parse this last statement of yours in a manner that makes any sense at all?
So the $ 1200 in your view is going to be used by people who get it, to what? To no longer pay their rent or house payment? To no longer buy food for the kids and spouse? Just where are you getting this idea? Please explain. I keep getting this on sites where Old Guard Republicans fear for the Union because God bless ’em, some inner paranoia is telling them that somehow somewhere, someone who filed a 1040 for 2018 is gonna spend it on Cheetos and crack cocaine.
Shame on you! Big feckin! Shame!