The Loneliness Epidemic intensifies Thanks to Lockdowns

More Statistics in Our Costs of Coronavirus Lockdowns Series:

• The Costs of Coronavirus Lockdowns: Introductory Article by Kai Weiss
• A Future Hunger Pandemic: 135 million more people are on the brink of starvation (UN World Food Program)
• Fear of Collapse for Small Businesses: 55 percent of European SMEs fear bankruptcy by September 2021 (McKinsley)
• Economies Lock Down, Deaths Spike: 1.4 million excess deaths of tuberculosis, 500.000 from illness related to HIV and 385.000  from malaria (WHO & Stop TB Partnership)
• Children Hurt Not by Corona – But by Lockdowns: children’s mental-health-related visits to the emergency departments in the U.S. increased by approximately 24% and 31% for children aged 5-11 and 12-17, respectively, compared to the same period in 2019 (CDC)
• Record-Breaking Budget Deficit in the U.S.: the U.S. government spent $3.1 trillion more than it collected in 2020. Who is supposed to ever pay back all this money has not been answered yet.  (U.S. Department of the Treasury)
• Drug Addiction Intensifies: the number of people dying from drug overdose in the U.S.rose by 17% in the last twelve months. This only includes reported cases until May 31, 2020. (CDC)
• Governments Grow in Size: in Austria, Germany, France, and Italy government spending has risen dramatically in 2020. (European Commission, Statista, and Handelsblatt)
• Stillbirths on the Rise: more than 200.000 additional stillbirths could occur just in the next 12 months, concentrated in low- and middle-income countries. (UNICEF)
• Extreme Poverty Shifts Gear…in Reverse: 2020 is expected to push between 119 and 124 million more people, into extreme poverty. (World Bank)
• The Poor Pay the Higher Lockdowns Price: lockdowns and restrictions have proven to be something that disproportionally affects those already poor, whereas those wealthier are less hurt. (PEW Research Center)
• The Hidden Suicide Explosion During the “Great Lockdown:” due to lockdowns and isolation, suicide rates in Japan went up, especially amongst children and adolescents. (Nature Human Behavior)
• How Women Are More Hurt by Lockdowns Than Men:  between the first and second quarter of 2020, on average, women suffered a 6.9 % decline in wages, compared to the 4.7% decline suffered by their male counterparts. (International Labor Organization)
• No Work in Europe Thanks to Lockdowns: The sharp decline in labor market participation and the 32 million people under the short-term work schemes hide the real numbers of the unemployed in the European Union, which most likely averaged a two-digit number. (ECB & Eurostat)
• Printing Money in Times of Corona: Monetary policy effectiveness has its boundaries. As the Fed has created 39% of all the “dollars” in the economy in 2020, those boundaries might have been reached. (Trading Economics)
• The Loneliness Epidemic intensifies Thanks to Lockdowns: Although the rate of loneliness stands at 36% among all respondents, it is a startling 61% among young people between 18 and 25 and 51% for mothers with young children (Making Caring Common)