Could Lockdown be more deadly than COVID-19?

People are going to die. It’s inevitable during this pandemic, but what really is the driving factor, COVID-19 or lockdown. Our economies are suffering, and so are we. For most people COVID-19 causes only mild illness, however for the likes of you and me, lockdown affects our health, mentally and physically, more than we would like to admit.

Food and Closures of Recreational Areas

Let’s talk about food. Stuck at home, we are drawn to the kitchen, but this constant opportunity comes at a price. Child obesity, combined with closures of skateparks, playground, Saturday morning football etc., has become a pressing issue during these times. Various research has shown that weight is gained in children predominately over the summer months, when schools are not open, just like during lockdown. In addition, lots of schools have taken to online learning, requiring children to sit in front of a screen all day, preventing them from taking some time out of their day to exercise and get up on their feet. This in turn, can create an unhealthy lifestyle and put the child more at risk to serious effects of COVID-19, whereas a healthy, active child is more likely to survive infection.

Child obesity is not the only food-based consequence of the COVID-19 lockdown. Many people have suffered or are still suffering from eating disorders. Being at home gives many a chance to just sit down and scroll through their social media accounts, but with nothing else to do, posts can make us obsessed over our weight and body shape. Lockdown does not make this any easier for anyone and can seriously affect your health. Without anything forcing us to lead our attention elsewhere, people who have previously had an eating disorder can become more vulnerable to suffering once again, which sequentially puts our health at risk by keeping us at home, possibly more than a mild case of COVID-19.

Boredom, Fear and Mental Health

Boredom plus fear equals a dangerous situation. Lockdown and the boredom which comes along with it, for many, can evoke feelings of loneliness, which is a prime risk factor for developing or worsening mental health. As the pandemic and its accompanying lockdown goes on, the danger is that these feelings can become long-term. It is proven that the impact of long-term loneliness on mental health can be very hard to manage and could lead you into some dangerous situations. As I mentioned earlier, the freedom to dwell in your own thoughts without distraction can also affect your mental health as it increases your opportunity to get caught up in something, which then can lead to problems in your health that could have a worse consequence than getting coronavirus.

Fear also plays a part in the worsening of mental health. Fear of the virus, but also fear of when lockdown ends and its ‘new normal’ affects many peoples’ mental health. Due to this long time in lockdown, different approaches to dealing with their anxieties have been made, but to face a considerable change again, can be quite daunting. Furthermore, the media has also played a key role in this. The media can overemphasize negative information about death rates, about virus mutation and other fatalistic data, which can become very challenging for people who are prone to negative ruminations and intrusive thoughts, such as people with underlying mental health issues.

Loss of Jobs

It is feared that more the 6.5 million jobs could be lost in the UK alone due to the economic fallout from this lockdown. The stress of unemployment can also take its toll and leave you more vulnerable to mental health problems. Many individuals worry about whether they will be able to buy food, or even afford to live, which in some cases can leave them in a very dangerous situation. Not only this, but some business will not recover after lockdown and those previous job holders could end up in poor living conditions, affecting your health even more than most people upon contracting COVID-19.

People may rely on their job industry for their income due to many different reasons and may not be able to re-skill quickly. If their jobs are no longer available due to the economic fallout, many may have to resort to more dangerous jobs, for example constructions jobs, which potentially have a higher fatality rate than COVID-19. Others may also have to resort to being refuse and recyclable material collectors, also putting them at a possible higher chance of death than if they contracted coronavirus.

Other Illnesses

Other Illnesses which are not COVID-19 still exist. A pressing issue is the treatment of Cancer patients. Having chemotherapy lowers your immune system and therefore puts you more at risk to the consequences of contracting COVID-19. Lockdown amplifies this fear and can prevent patients from willingly going out to get their treatment. This means that although having chemotherapy puts them at risk, it gives those patients a chance at survival. However, a lockdown only makes them think that staying at home without their treatment is the safest option, which may not always be the case. I am not saying no social restrictions would be safe for them, but rather that lockdown can lead to more deaths than expected purely because it created a sense fear and panic.

Due to lockdown, people believe they should only go out when absolutely necessary. This may sound sensible, however when some people see early signs of heart attacks or strokes, they simply dismiss it as nothing and don’t go into A&E until it’s too late, leading to fatal consequences. These are serious health problems, and lockdown prevents these people from getting the help they really need right away. Lockdown gives of the impression that the only thing that can affect your health negatively is COVID-19 and that it’s the only thing you should be aware of, when in reality the lockdown only seems to be moving the high death rates from COVID-19 to many other illnesses.

In conclusion, lockdown could quite possibly be more deadly than COVID-19 to people like you and me. However, we cannot be sure of the fatality rate of coronavirus due to the lack of knowledge about COVID-19 and the exact figures relating to its cases. This being said, the research we do have about COVID-19 and the affects and consequences of lockdown point towards the fact that perhaps going into lockdown was not worth the risk.