thestream--2020-05-05--Anxiety From Reactions to COVID-19 Will Destroy At Least Seven Times More Years of Life Than Can Be

Anxiety From Reactions to COVID-19 Will Destroy At Least Seven Times More Years of Life Than Can Be Saved by Lockdowns

Medical studies show that excessive stress and anxiety are among the most debilitating and deadly of all health hazards in the world .
Beyond their obvious effects like suicide and substance abuse — these mental stressors are strongly related to and may trigger and inflame a host of ailments like high blood pressure , digestive disorders , heart conditions , infectious diseases , cancer and pregnancy complications .
Based on a broad array of scientific data , Just Facts has computed that the anxiety created by reactions to COVID-19 — such as stay-at-home orders , business shutdowns , media exaggerations @ @ @ @ @ @ @ — will destroy at least seven times more years of human life than can possibly be saved by lockdowns to control the spread of the disease .
This figure is a bare minimum , and the actual one is likely more than 90 times greater .
This study was reviewed by Joseph P. Damore , Jr. , M.D.
, who concluded : “ This research is engaging and thoroughly answers the question about the cure being worse than the disease.
” Dr. Damore is a certified diplomate with the American Board of Psychiatry @ @ @ @ @ @ @ psychiatry at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University , an assistant attending psychiatrist at New York Presbyterian Hospital , and an adjunct professor in the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership at the U.S. Military Academy .
Scientific surveys of U.S. residents have found that the mental health of about one-third to one-half of all adults has been substantially compromised by reactions to the COVID-19 pandemic .
Examples include the following : • An American Psychiatric Association survey in mid-March found that 36 % of adults report that anxiety over COVID-19 “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ mental health.
” • A Kaiser Family Foundation survey in late March found that 45 % of adults “ feel that worry and stress related to ” COVID-19 “ has had a negative impact on their mental health , an increase from 32 % from early March.
” Additionally , 19 % of adults said it is having a “ major impact ” on their mental health .
• A Benenson Strategy Group survey in late March revealed that the COVID-19 “ situation has already affected ” the “ mental health ” of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a great deal or somewhat.
” • A Kaiser Family Foundation survey in late April found that 56 % of adults “ report that worry and stress related to ” COVID-19 “ is affecting their mental health and wellbeing in various ways , ” such as “ trouble sleeping , “ poor appetite or over-eating , ” “ frequent headaches or stomachaches , ” “ difficulty controlling their temper , ” “ increasing their alcohol or drug use , ” and “ worsening chronic conditions like diabetes or high blood pressure.
” Contributors @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are not limited to : • anguish over the death of loved ones , although this is limited to a relatively small fraction of the public because the virus has killed one out of every 5,000 Americans , while one out of every 116 Americans die every year .
• media outlets that overstate the deadliness of COVID-19 by : • using false denominators that exaggerate its death rate .
• misreporting about the capacity of the virus to mutate and cause a large , ongoing death toll .
• government stay-at-home orders @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : • a survey commissioned by the University of Phoenix in late March that found 44 % of U.S. adults are more lonely than they have ever been in their lives , which is a risk factor for suicide and many other psychologically driven fatal afflictions .
• the late-March Kaiser Family Foundation survey , which “ found that 47 % of those sheltering in place reported negative mental health effects resulting from worry or stress , ” a rate that “ is significantly higher than the 37 % among people who were @ @ @ @ @ @ @ late-March Benenson Strategy Group survey , which found that “ 71 % of Americans say they are concerned that ‘ social distancing ’ measures will have a negative impact on the country ’ s mental health — including 28 % who are extremely or very concerned about this.
” • government-mandated shutdowns of businesses in nearly every state that have cost millions of jobs and are reflected in the : • late-April Kaiser Family Foundation survey , which found that 35 % of adults and 55 % of workers “ have lost their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or pay as a result of ” responses to COVID-19 .
• mid-March American Psychiatric Association survey , which found that 57 % of adults are concerned that responses to the pandemic “ will have a serious negative impact on their finances , ” and 68 % fear it “ will have a long-lasting impact on the economy.
” Among all of the figures above , the lowest nationwide measure of people who have incurred psychological harm from reactions to COVID-19 is the 19 % of adults in the late-March Kaiser Family Foundation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” on their mental health .
This survey included 1,226 respondents and has a margin of sampling error for this result of ± 2.2 percentage points with 95 % confidence .
Therefore , at least 16.8 % of 255,200,373 adults in the United States — or about 42,874,000 people — have suffered major mental harm from responses to COVID-19 .
This figure forms the first key basis of this study .
The Deadliness of Anxiety and Stress Medical journals are rich with studies that attempt to measure the lethality of stress , anxiety @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Determining this is very difficult because association does not prove causation , and unmeasured factors could be at play .
For example , a 2011 meta-analysis [ analysis aggregating multiple previous research studies ] in the journal Social Science & Medicine about mortality , “ psychosocial stress , ” and job losses finds that “ unemployment is associated with a substantially increased risk of death among broad segments of the population , ” but there are conflicting theories as to why this is so .
One is that “ unemployment causes adverse changes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lead to deterioration of health.
” Put simply , unemployment causes bad health .
The other theory is that bad health causes unemployment .
Both of these theories may be true , and factors that are not measured in the studies could be causing both unemployment and bad health .
Thus , it is very difficult to isolate these variables and determine which is causing the others and to what degree .
While trying to address such uncertainty , the meta-analysis examined “ 235 mortality risk estimates from 42 studies ” and found @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 63 % higher risk of mortality in studies controlling for covariates.
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Regardless of whether job losses from COVID-19 lockdowns are brief or sustained , the study found that the death correlation “ is significant in both the short and long term , ” lending “ some support to the hypothesis and previous findings that both the stress and the negative lifestyle effects associated with the onset of unemployment tend to persist even after @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Also of relevance to current job losses , the study indicates that added unemployment benefits , like those recently passed into federal law , are unlikely to mitigate the deadliness of job losses .
This is because the meta-analysis found that the associations between unemployment and death in Scandinavia and the U.S. are not significantly different , even though the Scandinavian nations offer more generous welfare benefits .
Thus , the authors conclude that “ these national-level policy differences may not have much of an effect on the rate of mortality following unemployment.
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ have similar implications for anxiety-related deaths wrought by reactions to COVID-19 : • A 1991 study published by the New England Journal of Medicine found that “ psychological stress was associated in a dose-response manner with an increased risk of acute infectious respiratory illness.
” A dose-response relationship , as explained by epidemiologist Sydney Pettygrove , “ is one in which increasing levels of exposure are associated with either an increasing or a decreasing risk of the outcome.
” She notes that when this pattern occurs , it “ is considered strong evidence @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and the outcome.
” • A 2004 paper in The Lancet documents that “ stress and depression result in an impairment of the immune response and might promote the initiation and progression of some types of cancer.
” The paper details many human and animal studies germane to the COVID-19 lockdowns , such as those dealing with a “ lack of social interactions ” that cause certain cancers to metastasize .
• A 2005 paper in the Journal of Experimental Medicine finds that “ psychological conditions , including stress ” trigger a “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the likelihood of infections , autoimmunity , or cancer.
” • A 2012 meta-analysis in the British Medical Journal finds “ a dose-response association between psychological distress and mortality from all causes , cardiovascular disease , and external causes across the full range of distress , even in people who would not usually come to the attention of mental health services.
” Furthermore , “ these associations remained after adjustment for age , sex , current occupational social class , body mass index , systolic blood pressure , physical activity , smoking , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with the lowest levels of psychological distress in this study had a 20 % greater risk of death , and those with the highest levels had a 94 % greater risk .
• A 2012 paper in the Journal of the American Medical Association Psychiatry analyzes the death rates of more than a million young males in Sweden who underwent a government-mandated military draft physical that “ included a structured interview by a psychologist ” during 1969 to 1994 .
This study is particularly relevant to the effects of the current COVID-19 anxiety @ @ @ @ @ @ @ young men of a nation and excludes those with “ severe ” mental or physical disorders because they were excused from the exam .
The study finds : • Young men who were diagnosed with neurotic and adjustment disorders were 76 % more likely to die in the average follow-up period of 22.6 years .
A neurotic disorder is a problem dealing with anxiety , and an adjustment disorder — which is now called “ stress response syndrome ” — is “ a short-term condition that occurs when a person has great difficulty @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a particular source of stress , such as a major life change , loss , or event.
” These are apt descriptions of the tens of millions of Americans who report that reactions to COVID-19 are seriously harming their mental health .
• Premature deaths associated with mental illness “ are not primarily due to suicide or accidents , although risk of both is increased , but to a range of natural causes , particularly cardiovascular disease.
” This suggests that the most pervasive harm from lockdowns does not manifest in obvious ways @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 2015 paper in the American Journal of Epidemiology examines the death rates of all “ Danes who received a diagnosis of reaction to severe stress or adjustment disorders ” between 1995 and 2011 .
The study found that they “ had mortality rates during the study period that were 2.2 times higher than ” those of the general population .
• A 2015 meta-analysis in the Journal of the American Medical Association Psychiatry provides a systematic review of 148 studies of death and mental disorders with follow-up times ranging from one to 52 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ years .
It finds that the overall risk of death among people with mental disorders is 2.2 times that of the general population .
Breaking these results out by condition , the mortality increases were : Among all of the results above , the smallest risk of increased death is 20 % in the 2012 meta-analysis .
This has a margin of error from 13 % to 27 % with 95 % confidence .
The lower limit of 13 % translates to an average of about 1.3 years of lost life per person @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the studies in the 2015 meta-analysis included estimates for the average years of life lost by each person with a mental disorder .
These “ ranged from 1.4 to 32 years , with a median of 10.1 years.
” None of these studies were for anxiety , but the low-end figure of 1.4 years provides additional evidence that those who suffer serious mental repercussions from responses to COVID-19 will lose an average of more than a year of life .
Therefore , the figure of 1.3 years of lost life is a bare @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of this study .
This varies widely by person and could be : • 50 years or more for young people who commit suicide .
• one month or less for elderly persons who have cardiac events triggered by fear or loneliness .
• two years for the middle-aged people whose blood pressure begins spiking earlier in life than it would have in the absence of COVID-19-related stress .
In the science of epidemiology , or the study of human disease , ethical and practical constraints often make it impossible to conduct experiments @ @ @ @ @ @ @ medical interventions .
This applies to determining how many lives might be saved by government lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic .
One can easily compare COVID-19 death rates — or the number of people who die from the disease divided by the total population where they live — in nations and states that took different actions .
However , many other factors can affect these death rates , such as wealth , age , population density , government , hospital protocols , culture , genetics , diet , and exercise .
For example @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the strictest lockdowns in the U.S. but has 22 times the death rate of Florida , which had one of the mildest lockdowns .
Given such considerations , the highest possible figure for lives saved by lockdowns can be estimated by comparing the nations of Scandinavia .
This is because these countries are culturally , economically , and genetically similar to one another but have enacted very dissimilar policies to deal with COVID-19 .
In the words of Paul W. Franks , professor of genetic epidemiology at Lund University in Sweden : Sweden @ @ @ @ @ @ @ spread of COVID-19 , like limiting public gatherings to 50 people .
However , these can hardly be characterized as “ lockdowns , ” and Swedish stores , restaurants , schools , beaches , and other public places are open and bustling .
Comparing the current death rates of Scandinavian nations yields a maximum figure for the lives saved by lockdowns because Sweden ’ s plan involves more deaths in the early stages of the pandemic but less later on .
As detailed by Professor Franks , simulations show that the overall death @ @ @ @ @ @ @ across countries , ” but “ unlike its peers , Sweden is likely to take the hit sooner and over a shorter period , with the majority of deaths occurring within weeks , rather than months.
” As of April 27th , the death rate in Sweden is 32 % higher than in the United States , 3.1 times that of Denmark , 5.8 times that of Norway , and 6.4 times that of Finland : Applying the Sweden/Finland death rate ratio of 6.4 to the United States , the maximum number of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ past and current lockdowns is 616,590 .
This figure is based on the most pessimistic projection of 114,228 deaths in the U.S. through August 4th by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington .
It is calculated by multiplying 114,228 deaths by 6.4 and then subtracting the 114,228 deaths that occur regardless of the lockdown .
The figure of 616,590 lives saved by lockdowns in the U.S. is at the extreme high-end of plausibility because it : • uses the worst-case projection for the U.S. death toll .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ to Finland , even though Denmark — which has also implemented a strict lockdown — has twice the death rate of Finland .
• assumes that Sweden ’ s death rate doesn ’ t decline relative to its neighbors over time regardless of Sweden ’ s strategy to build herd immunity consistent with the following facts : • The Imperial College — whose cataclysmic projections of COVID-19 deaths have been a driving force behind government lockdowns — has acknowledged that “ the more successful a strategy is at temporary suppression , the larger @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the absence of vaccination , due to lesser build-up of herd immunity.
” • A 2012 paper in the journal PLoS One titled “ Immunity in Society ” notes that “ when a sufficiently high proportion of individuals within a population becomes immune ( either through prior exposure or through mass vaccination ) , community or ‘ herd ’ immunity emerges , whereby individuals that are poorly immunized are protected by the collective ‘ immune firewall ’ provided by immunized neighbors.
” • Large portions of people are highly resistant to COVID-19 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it , later making them firewalls against the spread of the disease .
For example , the New England Journal of Medicine reported in mid-April that universal COVID-19 testing of pregnant women at two New York City hospitals found that 88 % of the women who tested positive for the disease were asymptomatic .
• U.S. states with strict lockdowns — like New Jersey and New York — have COVID-19 death rates that are three to five times that of Sweden ’ s : Nonetheless , this study uses the highly improbable and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lockdowns .
This figure forms the third key basis of the study .
Combining the first two key figures of this study , anxiety from responses to COVID-19 has impacted 42,873,663 adults and will rob them of an average of 1.3 years of life , thus destroying 55.7 million years of life .
Combining the third key figure of this study with data on COVID-19 deaths , a maximum of 616,590 lives might be saved by the current lockdowns , and the disease robs an average of 12 years of life from each @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the current lockdowns can save no more than 7.4 million years of life .
In other words , the anxiety from reactions to COVID-19 — such as business shutdowns , stay-at-home orders , media exaggerations , and legitimate concerns about the virus — will extinguish at least seven times more years of life than can possibly be saved by the lockdowns .
Again , all of these figures minimize deaths from anxiety and maximize lives saved by lockdowns .
Under the more moderate scenarios documented above , anxiety will destroy more than 90 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on : • the mid-March American Psychiatric Association survey that found COVID-19 “ is having a serious impact ” on the “ mental health ” of 36 % of adults .
• the 2015 meta-analysis in the Journal of the American Medical Association Psychiatry that found a 43 % average increase in mortality for people with anxiety .
• the IHME ’ s midpoint projection of 72,433 COVID-19 deaths through August 4th .
• the fact that the current death rate of Sweden is 1 times the average of the other Scandinavian nations @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is likely a substantial underestimate of the total life destroyed by reactions to COVID-19 because it doesn ’ t account for : • anyone under the age of 18 , even though adolescents are disproportionately prone to stress-related suicides , substance abuse , and risky behaviors that cause fatal accidents .
• deaths caused by low levels of psychological distress — which have impacted an additional 20 % of adults beyond the 36 % with serious distress according to the late-April Kaiser Family Foundation survey — and are associated with a 20 % @ @ @ @ @ @ @ British Medical Journal meta-analysis .
• psychological conditions that are more deadly than anxiety , like depression and mood disorders .
Among the 36 % who report a “ serious impact ” on their “ mental health , ” there is a mix of conditions , and the 2015 meta-analysis in the Journal of the American Medical Association Psychiatry finds that the increased risk of death is lowest for anxiety ( 43 % ) , while it is 71 % for depression , and 110 % for mood disorders .
• deaths from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ government-mandated and personal decisions to delay medical care , which has postponed tumor removals , cancer screenings , heart surgeries , and treatments for other ailments that can lead to early death if not addressed in a timely manner .
• economic decline and government debt , which have negative effects on healthcare , nutrition , education , and other variables that impact life expectancy .
Unlike analyses that only compare the number of deaths from COVID-19 to other causes , this study accounts for the years of life lost for each victim @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s principle that “ the allocation of health resources must consider not only the number of deaths by cause but also by age.
” Thus , the CDC explains that the “ years of potential life lost ” has “ become a mainstay in the evaluation of the impact of injuries on public health.
” This doesn ’ t mean that the lives of young people are more important than that of the elderly , but it recognizes and accounts for the facts that : • humans can not ultimately prevent death ; @ @ @ @ @ @ @ there is a material difference between a malady that kills a 20 year-old in the prime of her life and one that kills a 90-year-old who would have otherwise died a month later .
A possible argument against this study is that it isn ’ t proper to compare anxiety to COVID-19 because the effects of anxiety often don ’ t kill until the distant future , while the deaths from COVID-19 are happening right now .
Such logic relegates the harms of mental distress to years away , but the facts are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ make life a nightmare in the present , and produce current and lasting physical ailments that end in early death .
More importantly , tallying the life lost in any random unit of time , as opposed to an entire lifetime , is shortsighted and exclusionary .
Other distinctions , such as whether or not the cause of death is contagious , are similarly myopic .
The primary issues are prevention and harm , and the difference between them ultimately determines how much life is saved or destroyed .
One of the most @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and harms .
A failure to do this can make virtually any medical treatment seem helpful or destructive .
In the words of Ronald C. Kessler of the Harvard Medical School and healthcare economist Paul E. Greenberg , “ medical interventions are appropriate only if their expected benefits clearly exceed the sum of their direct costs and their expected risks.
” Likewise , a 2020 paper about quarantines published in The Lancet states : Yet , when dealing with COVID-19 and other issues , politicians sometimes ignore this essential principle of sound decision-making @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Governor Phil Murphy recently insisted that he must maintain a lockdown or “ there will be blood on our hands.
” What that statement fails to recognize is that lockdowns also kill people via the mechanisms detailed above .
Likewise , a reporter asked N.Y .
Governor Andrew Cuomo about the impacts of his lockdown on people who commit “ suicide because they can ’ t pay their bills ” and others who die from the economic repercussions and “ mental illness.
” In reply , Cuomo stated five times that these @ @ @ @ @ @ @ He also asked the rhetorical question , “ How can the cure be worse than the illness if the illness is potential death ?
” The obvious answer is that the cure is also potential death .
In situations like pandemics and many other realms of public policy , life-and-death tradeoffs are inevitable , and failing to recognize this can cause tremendous harm .
This is the case with COVID-19 , where a broad array of scientific facts overwhelmingly shows that anxiety from reactions to the disease will destroy at least seven times @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be saved by lockdowns .
Moreover , the total loss of life from all societal responses to this disease is likely to be more than 90 times greater than prevented by the lockdowns .
A final note for readers who are experiencing anxiety : Healthcare professionals can reduce these effects , so seek help .
Dr. Andrew Glen is a Professor Emeritus of Operations Research from the United States Military Academy .
He is a thirty-year U.S. Army veteran and an award-winning researcher in the field of computational probability .
James D. Agresti @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a think tank dedicated to publishing rigorously documented facts about public policy issues .

Medical studies show that excessive stress and anxiety are among the most debilitating and deadly of all health hazards in the world. Beyond their obvious effects like suicide and substance abuse — these mental stressors are strongly related to and may trigger and inflame a host of ailments like high blood pressure, digestive disorders, heart conditions, infectious diseases, cancer and pregnancy complications.
Based on a broad array of scientific data, Just Facts has computed that the anxiety created by reactions to COVID-19 — such as stay-at-home orders, business shutdowns, media exaggerations, and legitimate concerns about the virus — will destroy at least seven times more years of human life than can possibly be saved by lockdowns to control the spread of the disease. This figure is a bare minimum, and the actual one is likely more than 90 times greater.
This study was reviewed by Joseph P. Damore, Jr., M.D., who concluded: “This research is engaging and thoroughly answers the question about the cure being worse than the disease.” Dr. Damore is a certified diplomate with the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, an assistant professor of psychiatry at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University, an assistant attending psychiatrist at New York Presbyterian Hospital, and an adjunct professor in the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership at the U.S. Military Academy.
Stress and Anxiety Levels
Scientific surveys of U.S. residents have found that the mental health of about one-third to one-half of all adults has been substantially compromised by reactions to the COVID-19 pandemic. Examples include the following:
An American Psychiatric Association survey in mid-March found that 36% of adults report that anxiety over COVID-19 “is having a serious impact on their mental health.”
A Kaiser Family Foundation survey in late March found that 45% of adults “feel that worry and stress related to” COVID-19 “has had a negative impact on their mental health, an increase from 32% from early March.” Additionally, 19% of adults said it is having a “major impact” on their mental health.
A Benenson Strategy Group survey in late March revealed that the COVID-19 “situation has already affected” the “mental health” of 55% of U.S. adults “either a great deal or somewhat.”
A Kaiser Family Foundation survey in late April found that 56% of adults “report that worry and stress related to” COVID-19 “is affecting their mental health and wellbeing in various ways,” such as “trouble sleeping, “poor appetite or over-eating,” “frequent headaches or stomachaches,” “difficulty controlling their temper,” “increasing their alcohol or drug use,” and “worsening chronic conditions like diabetes or high blood pressure.”
Contributors to these mental health impacts include but are not limited to:
Among all of the figures above, the lowest nationwide measure of people who have incurred psychological harm from reactions to COVID-19 is the 19% of adults in the late-March Kaiser Family Foundation survey who reported a “major impact” on their mental health. This survey included 1,226 respondents and has a margin of sampling error for this result of ± 2.2 percentage points with 95% confidence.
Therefore, at least 16.8% of 255,200,373 adults in the United States — or about 42,874,000 people — have suffered major mental harm from responses to COVID-19. This figure forms the first key basis of this study.
The Deadliness of Anxiety and Stress
Medical journals are rich with studies that attempt to measure the lethality of stress, anxiety, depression and other psychological conditions. Determining this is very difficult because association does not prove causation, and unmeasured factors could be at play.
For example, a 2011 meta-analysis [analysis aggregating multiple previous research studies] in the journal Social Science & Medicine about mortality, “psychosocial stress,” and job losses finds that “unemployment is associated with a substantially increased risk of death among broad segments of the population,” but there are conflicting theories as to why this is so. One is that “unemployment causes adverse changes in health behaviors, which in turn lead to deterioration of health.” Put simply, unemployment causes bad health. The other theory is that bad health causes unemployment. Both of these theories may be true, and factors that are not measured in the studies could be causing both unemployment and bad health. Thus, it is very difficult to isolate these variables and determine which is causing the others and to what degree.
While trying to address such uncertainty, the meta-analysis examined “235 mortality risk estimates from 42 studies” and found that “unemployment is associated with a 63% higher risk of mortality in studies controlling for covariates.”
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Regardless of whether job losses from COVID-19 lockdowns are brief or sustained, the study found that the death correlation “is significant in both the short and long term,” lending “some support to the hypothesis and previous findings that both the stress and the negative lifestyle effects associated with the onset of unemployment tend to persist even after a person has regained a job.”
Also of relevance to current job losses, the study indicates that added unemployment benefits, like those recently passed into federal law, are unlikely to mitigate the deadliness of job losses. This is because the meta-analysis found that the associations between unemployment and death in Scandinavia and the U.S. are not significantly different, even though the Scandinavian nations offer more generous welfare benefits. Thus, the authors conclude that “these national-level policy differences may not have much of an effect on the rate of mortality following unemployment.”
A broad range of other studies have similar implications for anxiety-related deaths wrought by reactions to COVID-19:
A 1991 study published by the New England Journal of Medicine found that “psychological stress was associated in a dose-response manner with an increased risk of acute infectious respiratory illness.” A dose-response relationship, as explained by epidemiologist Sydney Pettygrove, “is one in which increasing levels of exposure are associated with either an increasing or a decreasing risk of the outcome.” She notes that when this pattern occurs, it “is considered strong evidence for a causal relationship between the exposure and the outcome.”
A 2004 paper in The Lancet documents that “stress and depression result in an impairment of the immune response and might promote the initiation and progression of some types of cancer.” The paper details many human and animal studies germane to the COVID-19 lockdowns, such as those dealing with a “lack of social interactions” that cause certain cancers to metastasize.
A 2005 paper in the Journal of Experimental Medicine finds that “psychological conditions, including stress” trigger a “sophisticated molecular mechanism” that increases “the likelihood of infections, autoimmunity, or cancer.”
A 2012 meta-analysis in the British Medical Journal finds “a dose-response association between psychological distress and mortality from all causes, cardiovascular disease, and external causes across the full range of distress, even in people who would not usually come to the attention of mental health services.” Furthermore, “these associations remained after adjustment for age, sex, current occupational social class, body mass index, systolic blood pressure, physical activity, smoking, alcohol consumption, and diabetes.” People with the lowest levels of psychological distress in this study had a 20% greater risk of death, and those with the highest levels had a 94% greater risk.
A 2012 paper in the Journal of the American Medical Association Psychiatry analyzes the death rates of more than a million young males in Sweden who underwent a government-mandated military draft physical that “included a structured interview by a psychologist” during 1969 to 1994. This study is particularly relevant to the effects of the current COVID-19 anxiety because it involves nearly all the healthy young men of a nation and excludes those with “severe” mental or physical disorders because they were excused from the exam. The study finds: Young men who were diagnosed with neurotic and adjustment disorders were 76% more likely to die in the average follow-up period of 22.6 years. A neurotic disorder is a problem dealing with anxiety, and an adjustment disorder — which is now called “stress response syndrome” — is “a short-term condition that occurs when a person has great difficulty coping with, or adjusting to, a particular source of stress, such as a major life change, loss, or event.” These are apt descriptions of the tens of millions of Americans who report that reactions to COVID-19 are seriously harming their mental health. Premature deaths associated with mental illness “are not primarily due to suicide or accidents, although risk of both is increased, but to a range of natural causes, particularly cardiovascular disease.” This suggests that the most pervasive harm from lockdowns does not manifest in obvious ways like suicides and overdoses.
A 2015 paper in the American Journal of Epidemiology examines the death rates of all “Danes who received a diagnosis of reaction to severe stress or adjustment disorders” between 1995 and 2011. The study found that they “had mortality rates during the study period that were 2.2 times higher than” those of the general population.
A 2015 meta-analysis in the Journal of the American Medical Association Psychiatry provides a systematic review of 148 studies of death and mental disorders with follow-up times ranging from one to 52 years, with a median of 10 years. It finds that the overall risk of death among people with mental disorders is 2.2 times that of the general population. Breaking these results out by condition, the mortality increases were: 43% for people with anxiety. 71% for people with depression. 110% for people with mood disorders. 150% times for people with psychoses.
Among all of the results above, the smallest risk of increased death is 20% in the 2012 meta-analysis. This has a margin of error from 13% to 27% with 95% confidence. The lower limit of 13% translates to an average of about 1.3 years of lost life per person.
Corroborating that figure, 22 of the studies in the 2015 meta-analysis included estimates for the average years of life lost by each person with a mental disorder. These “ranged from 1.4 to 32 years, with a median of 10.1 years.” None of these studies were for anxiety, but the low-end figure of 1.4 years provides additional evidence that those who suffer serious mental repercussions from responses to COVID-19 will lose an average of more than a year of life.
Therefore, the figure of 1.3 years of lost life is a bare minimum and forms the second key basis of this study. This varies widely by person and could be:
50 years or more for young people who commit suicide.
one month or less for elderly persons who have cardiac events triggered by fear or loneliness.
two years for the middle-aged people whose blood pressure begins spiking earlier in life than it would have in the absence of COVID-19-related stress.
Lives Saved by Lockdowns
In the science of epidemiology, or the study of human disease, ethical and practical constraints often make it impossible to conduct experiments that can definitively establish the effects of medical interventions. This applies to determining how many lives might be saved by government lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic.
One can easily compare COVID-19 death rates — or the number of people who die from the disease divided by the total population where they live — in nations and states that took different actions. However, many other factors can affect these death rates, such as wealth, age, population density, government, hospital protocols, culture, genetics, diet, and exercise. For example, New York State enacted one of the strictest lockdowns in the U.S. but has 22 times the death rate of Florida, which had one of the mildest lockdowns.
Given such considerations, the highest possible figure for lives saved by lockdowns can be estimated by comparing the nations of Scandinavia. This is because these countries are culturally, economically, and genetically similar to one another but have enacted very dissimilar policies to deal with COVID-19. In the words of Paul W. Franks, professor of genetic epidemiology at Lund University in Sweden:
The Swedish approach to COVID-19 could not be more different from its neighbors, placing much of the responsibility for delaying the spread of the virus and protecting the vulnerable in the hands of the public. It’s now April and, albeit with some restrictions, Swedish bars, restaurants and schools remain open. … This all contrasts the far more assertive physical restrictions imposed in the culturally similar neighboring countries. Across the borders in Denmark, Norway and Finland, schools closed weeks ago and movement has been severely restricted.
Sweden has taken certain measures to slow the spread of COVID-19, like limiting public gatherings to 50 people. However, these can hardly be characterized as “lockdowns,” and Swedish stores, restaurants, schools, beaches, and other public places are open and bustling.
Comparing the current death rates of Scandinavian nations yields a maximum figure for the lives saved by lockdowns because Sweden’s plan involves more deaths in the early stages of the pandemic but less later on. As detailed by Professor Franks, simulations show that the overall death rate is “expected to be similar across countries,” but “unlike its peers, Sweden is likely to take the hit sooner and over a shorter period, with the majority of deaths occurring within weeks, rather than months.”
As of April 27th, the death rate in Sweden is 32% higher than in the United States, 3.1 times that of Denmark, 5.8 times that of Norway, and 6.4 times that of Finland:
Applying the Sweden/Finland death rate ratio of 6.4 to the United States, the maximum number of Americans who could have been saved by past and current lockdowns is 616,590. This figure is based on the most pessimistic projection of 114,228 deaths in the U.S. through August 4th by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. It is calculated by multiplying 114,228 deaths by 6.4 and then subtracting the 114,228 deaths that occur regardless of the lockdown.
The figure of 616,590 lives saved by lockdowns in the U.S. is at the extreme high-end of plausibility because it:
uses the worst-case projection for the U.S. death toll.
compares the death rate in Sweden to Finland, even though Denmark — which has also implemented a strict lockdown — has twice the death rate of Finland.
assumes that Sweden’s death rate doesn’t decline relative to its neighbors over time regardless of Sweden’s strategy to build herd immunity consistent with the following facts: The Imperial College — whose cataclysmic projections of COVID-19 deaths have been a driving force behind government lockdowns — has acknowledged that “the more successful a strategy is at temporary suppression, the larger the later epidemic is predicted to be in the absence of vaccination, due to lesser build-up of herd immunity.” A 2012 paper in the journal PLoS One titled “Immunity in Society” notes that “when a sufficiently high proportion of individuals within a population becomes immune (either through prior exposure or through mass vaccination), community or ‘herd’ immunity emerges, whereby individuals that are poorly immunized are protected by the collective ‘immune firewall’ provided by immunized neighbors.” Large portions of people are highly resistant to COVID-19 and experience no symptoms when they catch it, later making them firewalls against the spread of the disease. For example, the New England Journal of Medicine reported in mid-April that universal COVID-19 testing of pregnant women at two New York City hospitals found that 88% of the women who tested positive for the disease were asymptomatic. U.S. states with strict lockdowns — like New Jersey and New York — have COVID-19 death rates that are three to five times that of Sweden’s:
Nonetheless, this study uses the highly improbable and optimistic scenario of 616,590 lives saved by lockdowns. This figure forms the third key basis of the study.
Comparing Life Lost and Saved
Combining the first two key figures of this study, anxiety from responses to COVID-19 has impacted 42,873,663 adults and will rob them of an average of 1.3 years of life, thus destroying 55.7 million years of life.
Combining the third key figure of this study with data on COVID-19 deaths, a maximum of 616,590 lives might be saved by the current lockdowns, and the disease robs an average of 12 years of life from each of its victims, which means that the current lockdowns can save no more than 7.4 million years of life.
In other words, the anxiety from reactions to COVID-19 — such as business shutdowns, stay-at-home orders, media exaggerations, and legitimate concerns about the virus — will extinguish at least seven times more years of life than can possibly be saved by the lockdowns.
Again, all of these figures minimize deaths from anxiety and maximize lives saved by lockdowns. Under the more moderate scenarios documented above, anxiety will destroy more than 90 times the life saved by lockdowns based on:
the mid-March American Psychiatric Association survey that found COVID-19 “is having a serious impact” on the “mental health” of 36% of adults.
the 2015 meta-analysis in the Journal of the American Medical Association Psychiatry that found a 43% average increase in mortality for people with anxiety.
the IHME’s midpoint projection of 72,433 COVID-19 deaths through August 4th.
the fact that the current death rate of Sweden is 1 times the average of the other Scandinavian nations.
Even the figure of 90 times is likely a substantial underestimate of the total life destroyed by reactions to COVID-19 because it doesn’t account for:
Unlike analyses that only compare the number of deaths from COVID-19 to other causes, this study accounts for the years of life lost for each victim. This accords with the CDC’s principle that “the allocation of health resources must consider not only the number of deaths by cause but also by age.” Thus, the CDC explains that the “years of potential life lost” has “become a mainstay in the evaluation of the impact of injuries on public health.” This doesn’t mean that the lives of young people are more important than that of the elderly, but it recognizes and accounts for the facts that:
humans cannot ultimately prevent death; they can only delay it.
there is a material difference between a malady that kills a 20 year-old in the prime of her life and one that kills a 90-year-old who would have otherwise died a month later.
A possible argument against this study is that it isn’t proper to compare anxiety to COVID-19 because the effects of anxiety often don’t kill until the distant future, while the deaths from COVID-19 are happening right now. Such logic relegates the harms of mental distress to years away, but the facts are clear that it can kill immediately, make life a nightmare in the present, and produce current and lasting physical ailments that end in early death. More importantly, tallying the life lost in any random unit of time, as opposed to an entire lifetime, is shortsighted and exclusionary.
Other distinctions, such as whether or not the cause of death is contagious, are similarly myopic. The primary issues are prevention and harm, and the difference between them ultimately determines how much life is saved or destroyed.
Summary
One of the most important principles of epidemiology is weighing benefits and harms. A failure to do this can make virtually any medical treatment seem helpful or destructive. In the words of Ronald C. Kessler of the Harvard Medical School and healthcare economist Paul E. Greenberg, “medical interventions are appropriate only if their expected benefits clearly exceed the sum of their direct costs and their expected risks.”
Likewise, a 2020 paper about quarantines published in The Lancet states:
Separation from loved ones, the loss of freedom, uncertainty over disease status, and boredom can, on occasion, create dramatic effects. Suicide has been reported, substantial anger generated, and lawsuits brought following the imposition of quarantine in previous outbreaks. The potential benefits of mandatory mass quarantine need to be weighed carefully against the possible psychological costs.
Yet, when dealing with COVID-19 and other issues, politicians sometimes ignore this essential principle of sound decision-making. For a prime example, N.J. Governor Phil Murphy recently insisted that he must maintain a lockdown or “there will be blood on our hands.” What that statement fails to recognize is that lockdowns also kill people via the mechanisms detailed above.
Likewise, a reporter asked N.Y. Governor Andrew Cuomo about the impacts of his lockdown on people who commit “suicide because they can’t pay their bills” and others who die from the economic repercussions and “mental illness.” In reply, Cuomo stated five times that these fatal outcomes are “not death.” He also asked the rhetorical question, “How can the cure be worse than the illness if the illness is potential death?” The obvious answer is that the cure is also potential death.
In situations like pandemics and many other realms of public policy, life-and-death tradeoffs are inevitable, and failing to recognize this can cause tremendous harm. This is the case with COVID-19, where a broad array of scientific facts overwhelmingly shows that anxiety from reactions to the disease will destroy at least seven times more years of life than can possibly be saved by lockdowns. Moreover, the total loss of life from all societal responses to this disease is likely to be more than 90 times greater than prevented by the lockdowns.
A final note for readers who are experiencing anxiety: Healthcare professionals can reduce these effects, so seek help.
Dr. Andrew Glen is a Professor Emeritus of Operations Research from the United States Military Academy. He is a thirty-year U.S. Army veteran and an award-winning researcher in the field of computational probability.
James D. Agresti is the president of Just Facts, a think tank dedicated to publishing rigorously documented facts about public policy issues.
CALL TO ACTION: COVID-19 is causing massive disruptions in life. The Stream’s parent organization, LIFE Outreach International, is helping send a first wave of help. LIFE’s local mission partners are already distributing thousands of surgical masks, gloves and other sanitary supplies to first responders, hospitals and nursing homes. In addition, other partners have focused on distributing as many meals as possible to help those who need food. You can help with these efforts. Click here to donate.


thestream--2020-05-05--3 Initiatives Feeding Health Care Workers in the Fight Against COVID-19

The heroes during the COVID-19 pandemic who forever will be remembered are our health care professionals .
Doctors , nurses , emergency medical technicians , and other medical professionals are on the front lines of that fight .
Generous individuals across America are responding to the sacrifice — long hours and putting themselves at risk of the contagion — of our health care workers with the universal love language of food .
“ For a lot of these folks [ medical personnel ] , they are working nonstop hours .
They don ’ t have time to prepare food at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ time to go grocery shopping , and they can ’ t order in , because there is nothing local that will deliver for a lunch , ” said Bethany Mandel , founder of Kosher19 .
“ And so , we have heard more times than I could possibly count , ‘ If this meal had not come , I would not have eaten during my shift , and my shift is 12 hours long.
’ ” Not only do the meals help our medical professionals , but the food orders supply desperately needed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sales to carryout .
The twin goals of helping health care professionals and providing sales to hard-hit restaurants were the driving force behind several individuals starting their own initiatives to send meals to hospital workers .
Mandel ’ s love of pizza opened the door to what has now become a national operation to supply food to thousands of health care workers .
As restaurants began to close in her Washington , D.C. , suburb of Silver Spring , Maryland , due to COVID-19 , she worried her favorite kosher pizza restaurant would @ @ @ @ @ @ @ keep kosher in our home , and so I have a personal , vested interest in keeping kosher restaurants alive , ” Mandel , 34 , told The Daily Signal in a phone interview .
“ If your local pizzeria goes out of business , you can go to another pizzeria .
If my local pizzeria goes out of business , there is no more pizza.
” Concern for the pizzeria ’ s ability to weather the financial storm brought on by COVID-19 led Mandel to consider ways in which she could provide @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I was thinking … how could I make a nice big order to help them out ?
I thought maybe I could send [ pizza ] to my girlfriend ’ s [ emergency room ] , ” she said .
Mandel posted on Facebook , explaining her idea and asking for donations to raise enough money for a large order .
In just an hour , she had raised all she needed .
Sending the pizzas to the hospital was “ fun ” and “ really easy , ” said Mandel , which @ @ @ @ @ @ @ do it again ?
” “ I posted on Twitter , and I said , ‘ Venmo me if you want to send money to New York-Presbyterian [ Hospital ] , ’ ” Mandel said , explaining that her friend ’ s son is a doctor at the hospital .
“ And at the end of the night , I had like $ 7,000.
” Venmo is a mobile application that allows individuals to send money through the app to other Venmo users .
Now , she had a problem , but a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ all the money that was sent to her to order food from local restaurants and deliver it to health care workers .
“ I started calling around to different hospitals and being like , ‘ Can I send you food ?
How can I do that ?
’ I wanted to sort of justify to people that I was spending their money responsibly , so I kept on tweeting pictures of the deliveries and then people kept on sending me money , ” she said .
At that point , Mandel recognized that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a nonprofit , and called a friend who created a website for Kosher19 .
Mandel solicited the help of other friends , and together they have raised more than $ 75,000 and sent more than 10,000 meals to 188 hospitals in 11 states and the District of Columbia .
By her sending kosher meals , those who do keep kosher are able to enjoy the meal with everyone else on their floor .
“ I wanted to send kosher food to everyone so that they could break bread together .
It ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , that they can all share a meal together , ” Mandel said .
Mandel says she and her team of volunteers plan to continue ordering and sending meals until they have spent all the money being donated .
Washington , D.C. , emergency room nurse Anaelise Martinez and her roommate , Azure McFarlane , posted on Facebook on March 30 , asking their friends to help them send food from the restaurant Buffalo & Bergen to the medical personnel at Prince George ’ s Hospital Center emergency room in Cheverly , Maryland @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 24 hours , they had exceeded their $ 700 goal and launched a formal fundraising campaign called Feed the Heroes DMV .
The “ DMV ” is shorthand for the District of Columbia and its suburbs in Maryland and Virginia .
“ We want to continue spreading the love to our health care staff and first responders in the DMV , ” McFarlane wrote on her Facebook page on March 31 .
The roommates and their friends have continued to raise thousands of dollars to purchase meals from Buffalo & Bergen and deliver @ @ @ @ @ @ @ across the Washington , D.C. , metro area .
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The Heritage Foundation , a conservative Washington , D.C.-based think tank and the parent organization of The Daily Signal , and many generous individuals have partnered with Feed the Heroes DMV to supply the resources needed to purchase hundreds of meals to medical professionals .
On April 24 , donations from The Heritage Foundation and others allowed Feed the Heroes to deliver 300 meals to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ entire shift of workers .
The meal delivery was timely , as the hospital ’ s cafeteria was closed that day .
The Heritage Foundation hopes to make the donation a weekly gift .
Howard University Hospital in the District of Columbia is next to receive meals , according to the Feed the Heroes ’ Facebook page .
Buffalo & Bergen owner Gina Chersevani says she would not be able to keep her doors open if it were not for the orders from Feed the Heroes DMV .
“ I need the business @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it to be able to keep the restaurant going [ and ] feed the people that need it ?
” she said .
Chersevani praised the work of Martinez and her friends saying , “ I am impressed … .
She is just doing the right thing because it ’ s innately in this girl .
So , how could that not be contagious to help ?
” The restaurant has gone from having 37 employees at two Buffalo & Bergen restaurant locations in Washington , D.C. , to just three full-time and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ helping to cover the costs for the meal orders , The Heritage Foundation has also captured the attention of The Washington Post and the appreciation of Chersevani for forgoing Buffalo & Bergen ’ s rent for up to six months .
Eric Korsvall , vice president of operations at the think tank , manages Massachusetts Avenue Properties , which includes Buffalo & Bergen ’ s 240 Massachusetts Ave. NE location .
The break in rent is allowing the bar and bagel restaurant to continue doing what they do so well ; namely , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has really been wonderful .
… He really is a different person .
He is very giving … .
It is just refreshing .
He is like the twist of lemon on a very dry martini , ” Chersevani said .
“ You are not really sure what to expect from The Heritage Foundation , and you know , like Capitol Hill and all those people , and then you put a little lemon zest on it , and it brightens the whole thing up .
So that is what he [ Korsvall @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Landini , managing director of Junction Bistro and Bakery , another business managed by Massachusetts Avenue Properties , this week plans to join neighboring Buffalo & Bergen in supplying meals to Feed the Heroes .
Landini is also a member of The Heritage Foundation ’ s National Coronavirus Recovery Commission .
At a time when so many people are asking how they can help , Chersevani says we all can and should do something to help those in need .
“ And I keep saying to people , you know , the hospital @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are like our front-line defense on getting the people the help that they need … .
If you have anything to give ; it might be time .
… Or you got your stimulus check , and you don ’ t need it .
Give it away !
… Make a difference , ” she said .
“ It ’ s amazing how good it feels to change someone ’ s day.
” Ellen Carmichael wanted to do something to help her friend ’ s sister , who is a hospital intensive-care unit @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , a resident of Washington , D.C. , and a group of her friends launched a fundraiser to raise enough money to send the ICU nurse and her team a nourishing meal .
They raised $ 1,800 in just four hours .
Their success motivated them to provide more nutritious meals to hospital workers .
“ We decided to continue our effort to serve front-line medical professionals in other coronavirus hot spots , including New Orleans , Seattle , Detroit , and Chicago , ” Carmichael , 32 , told The Daily Signal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to feeding the front-line heroes , we wanted to support local restaurants and caterers , as well as their delivery drivers .
Everyone wins !
” In just one week , Carmichael and her friends raised $ 8,000 and sent 790 meals to feed front-line anti-COVID-19 workers .
One of the priorities of the fundraiser was also to send food to the night-shift hospital workers .
Carmichael and her friends found restaurants and caterers who could deliver food late into the evening .
“ We had heard from hospital staff that this had @ @ @ @ @ @ @ could only deliver during the daytime , ” she said .
“ Having fresh food for the overnight support staff who were working so hard to keep the hospitals clean and safe , in addition to the medical professionals , was really special.
” The grassroots campaign was successful due to the outpouring of help from friends and strangers alike .
Even the United Cajun Navy , a nonprofit that organizes search-and-rescue operations during natural disasters , stepped in to help , promoting the fundraiser and providing hygienic transportation of meals to New @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has been overwhelming to see the outpouring of resources from so many different people across our nation , adding :

The heroes during the COVID-19 pandemic who forever will be remembered are our health care professionals. Doctors, nurses, emergency medical technicians, and other medical professionals are on the front lines of that fight.
Generous individuals across America are responding to the sacrifice — long hours and putting themselves at risk of the contagion — of our health care workers with the universal love language of food.
“For a lot of these folks [medical personnel], they are working nonstop hours. They don’t have time to prepare food at home. They don’t have time to go grocery shopping, and they can’t order in, because there is nothing local that will deliver for a lunch,” said Bethany Mandel, founder of Kosher19. “And so, we have heard more times than I could possibly count, ‘If this meal had not come, I would not have eaten during my shift, and my shift is 12 hours long.’”
Not only do the meals help our medical professionals, but the food orders supply desperately needed business to local restaurants forced to limit sales to carryout.
The twin goals of helping health care professionals and providing sales to hard-hit restaurants were the driving force behind several individuals starting their own initiatives to send meals to hospital workers.
1. Kosher19
Mandel’s love of pizza opened the door to what has now become a national operation to supply food to thousands of health care workers.
As restaurants began to close in her Washington, D.C., suburb of Silver Spring, Maryland, due to COVID-19, she worried her favorite kosher pizza restaurant would not survive the lockdown.
“We keep kosher in our home, and so I have a personal, vested interest in keeping kosher restaurants alive,” Mandel, 34, told The Daily Signal in a phone interview. “If your local pizzeria goes out of business, you can go to another pizzeria. If my local pizzeria goes out of business, there is no more pizza.”
Concern for the pizzeria’s ability to weather the financial storm brought on by COVID-19 led Mandel to consider ways in which she could provide business to other kosher restaurants.
“I was thinking … how could I make a nice big order to help them out? I thought maybe I could send [pizza] to my girlfriend’s [emergency room],” she said.
Mandel posted on Facebook, explaining her idea and asking for donations to raise enough money for a large order. In just an hour, she had raised all she needed.
Sending the pizzas to the hospital was “fun” and “really easy,” said Mandel, which got her thinking: “Why not do it again?”
“I posted on Twitter, and I said, ‘Venmo me if you want to send money to New York-Presbyterian [Hospital],’” Mandel said, explaining that her friend’s son is a doctor at the hospital. “And at the end of the night, I had like $7,000.” Venmo is a mobile application that allows individuals to send money through the app to other Venmo users.
Now, she had a problem, but a good one: She had to use all the money that was sent to her to order food from local restaurants and deliver it to health care workers.
“I started calling around to different hospitals and being like, ‘Can I send you food? How can I do that?’ I wanted to sort of justify to people that I was spending their money responsibly, so I kept on tweeting pictures of the deliveries and then people kept on sending me money,” she said.
At that point, Mandel recognized that she needed to turn the effort into a nonprofit, and called a friend who created a website for Kosher19. Mandel solicited the help of other friends, and together they have raised more than $75,000 and sent more than 10,000 meals to 188 hospitals in 11 states and the District of Columbia.
By her sending kosher meals, those who do keep kosher are able to enjoy the meal with everyone else on their floor.
“I wanted to send kosher food to everyone so that they could break bread together. It’s a nice opportunity for … floor bonding, that they can all share a meal together,” Mandel said.
Mandel says she and her team of volunteers plan to continue ordering and sending meals until they have spent all the money being donated.
2. Feed the Heroes DMV
Washington, D.C., emergency room nurse Anaelise Martinez and her roommate, Azure McFarlane, posted on Facebook on March 30, asking their friends to help them send food from the restaurant Buffalo & Bergen to the medical personnel at Prince George’s Hospital Center emergency room in Cheverly, Maryland, just outside of Washington.
Within 24 hours, they had exceeded their $700 goal and launched a formal fundraising campaign called Feed the Heroes DMV. The “DMV” is shorthand for the District of Columbia and its suburbs in Maryland and Virginia.
“We want to continue spreading the love to our health care staff and first responders in the DMV,” McFarlane wrote on her Facebook page on March 31.
The roommates and their friends have continued to raise thousands of dollars to purchase meals from Buffalo & Bergen and deliver them to health care workers at hospitals across the Washington, D.C., metro area.
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The Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington, D.C.-based think tank and the parent organization of The Daily Signal, and many generous individuals have partnered with Feed the Heroes DMV to supply the resources needed to purchase hundreds of meals to medical professionals.
On April 24, donations from The Heritage Foundation and others allowed Feed the Heroes to deliver 300 meals to MedStar Washington Hospital Center, feeding an entire shift of workers. The meal delivery was timely, as the hospital’s cafeteria was closed that day. The Heritage Foundation hopes to make the donation a weekly gift.
Howard University Hospital in the District of Columbia is next to receive meals, according to the Feed the Heroes’ Facebook page.
Buffalo & Bergen owner Gina Chersevani says she would not be able to keep her doors open if it were not for the orders from Feed the Heroes DMV.
“I need the business to survive, so how cool is it to be able to keep the restaurant going [and] feed the people that need it?” she said.
Chersevani praised the work of Martinez and her friends saying, “I am impressed … . She is just doing the right thing because it’s innately in this girl. So, how could that not be contagious to help?”
The restaurant has gone from having 37 employees at two Buffalo & Bergen restaurant locations in Washington, D.C., to just three full-time and two part-time employees.
In addition to helping to cover the costs for the meal orders, The Heritage Foundation has also captured the attention of The Washington Post and the appreciation of Chersevani for forgoing Buffalo & Bergen’s rent for up to six months.
Eric Korsvall, vice president of operations at the think tank, manages Massachusetts Avenue Properties, which includes Buffalo & Bergen’s 240 Massachusetts Ave. NE location. The break in rent is allowing the bar and bagel restaurant to continue doing what they do so well; namely, feeding people tasty food.
“Eric has really been wonderful. … He really is a different person. He is very giving … . It is just refreshing. He is like the twist of lemon on a very dry martini,” Chersevani said. “You are not really sure what to expect from The Heritage Foundation, and you know, like Capitol Hill and all those people, and then you put a little lemon zest on it, and it brightens the whole thing up. So that is what he [Korsvall] is like to me.”
Noe Landini, managing director of Junction Bistro and Bakery, another business managed by Massachusetts Avenue Properties, this week plans to join neighboring Buffalo & Bergen in supplying meals to Feed the Heroes. Landini is also a member of The Heritage Foundation’s National Coronavirus Recovery Commission.
At a time when so many people are asking how they can help, Chersevani says we all can and should do something to help those in need.
“And I keep saying to people, you know, the hospital workers or the fire department, they are like our front-line defense on getting the people the help that they need … . If you have anything to give; it might be time. … Or you got your stimulus check, and you don’t need it. Give it away! … Make a difference,” she said. “It’s amazing how good it feels to change someone’s day.”
3. Ellen Carmichael
Ellen Carmichael wanted to do something to help her friend’s sister, who is a hospital intensive-care unit nurse at New York-Presbyterian Hospital. Carmichael, a resident of Washington, D.C., and a group of her friends launched a fundraiser to raise enough money to send the ICU nurse and her team a nourishing meal.
They raised $1,800 in just four hours. Their success motivated them to provide more nutritious meals to hospital workers.
“We decided to continue our effort to serve front-line medical professionals in other coronavirus hot spots, including New Orleans, Seattle, Detroit, and Chicago,” Carmichael, 32, told The Daily Signal in an email. “In addition to feeding the front-line heroes, we wanted to support local restaurants and caterers, as well as their delivery drivers. Everyone wins!”
In just one week, Carmichael and her friends raised $8,000 and sent 790 meals to feed front-line anti-COVID-19 workers.
One of the priorities of the fundraiser was also to send food to the night-shift hospital workers. Carmichael and her friends found restaurants and caterers who could deliver food late into the evening.
“We had heard from hospital staff that this had been an issue, as most restaurants could only deliver during the daytime,” she said. “Having fresh food for the overnight support staff who were working so hard to keep the hospitals clean and safe, in addition to the medical professionals, was really special.”
The grassroots campaign was successful due to the outpouring of help from friends and strangers alike. Even the United Cajun Navy, a nonprofit that organizes search-and-rescue operations during natural disasters, stepped in to help, promoting the fundraiser and providing hygienic transportation of meals to New Orleans East Hospital.
Carmichael said it has been overwhelming to see the outpouring of resources from so many different people across our nation, adding:
Americans are innately generous and kind. Even as so many are struggling, they are also thinking about the tremendous sacrifices our medical professionals have made for our communities. With our options so limited with social distancing and lockdowns, this informal fundraiser was an opportunity for us all to actually do something that could make a difference, not only for the hospitals, but also for the food-service industry during such a challenging time. It was our honor to help.
Copyright 2020 The Daily Signal


thestream--2020-05-05--Under This Doctor’s Care, Most COVID-19 Patients Are Recovering. Here’s His Unusual Approach

One of the biggest hurdles in dealing with a pandemic caused by a completely new virus is grappling with the sheer amount of unknown information .
In the case of the novel coronavirus , SARS-CoV2 , this was particularly difficult because the presentation of each patient seemed so vastly different from the previous case .
Furthermore , many patients seemed to improve clinically before deteriorating , requiring an admission to the intensive care unit for weeks at a time .
The pernicious behavior of the virus made pandemic response that much more difficult , and the unpredictable nature of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Physicians who were treating COVID-19 patients took note and communicated to others by phone call , conference , or social media , but there was no central repository for their experiences , which ensured that the virus spread much faster than information .
Now , approximately four months since the first reported case in America , we are beginning to understand why .
Dr. Thomas Yadegar , a critical care physician for 20 years and now director of the intensive care unit at Providence Cedars-Sinai Tarzana Medical Center in Tarzana , California @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the pandemic response .
The first time one of his patients deteriorated , he was completely stumped for the first time in his two decades in the ICU .
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Many of his patients were in acute respiratory distress .
But many other patients were experiencing abnormal coagulation , inflammatory heart disease , and some were even experiencing neurological deficits and weakened muscles .
“ I have 20 years of critical care experience , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ just happened to my patient , ” Yadegar said .
One evening after an exhausting shift , he sat down and pored over patient charts for all those cases , searching for a common thread .
Finally , after one of the worst headaches of his life , he found it .
Early in the pandemic , Yadegar ’ s unit used treatment guidelines that came from doctors around the world , which recommended avoiding anti-inflammatory treatment and recommended early and aggressive use of ventilators to prevent patients from declining further .
But @ @ @ @ @ @ @ severe viral respiratory disease by using a ventilator to assist with oxygenating the blood while the body uses its inflammatory pathways to mount a response to the virus .
Those guidelines did not address the treatment for when other organ systems began to fail .
In fact , using a ventilator is a highly invasive procedure , and the repeated and forced inspiration of air irritates the lungs , which feeds back into the inflammatory cycle .
Many patients , once on a ventilator , never recover .
The only way to explain @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to change from one patient to the next is that the virus is causing an autoimmune response , in which the body ’ s natural defense mechanisms go haywire and begin destroying the body it ’ s trying to protect .
The disease course is so unpredictable because every person ’ s immune system is unique to that person .
This phenomenon is not unheard of , and a common virus , Epstein-Barr virus , is known for potentially initiating the body ’ s inflammatory pathways to attack the nervous system and causing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ SARS-CoV2 is that it ’ s much more efficient at doing this — and often in a catastrophic manner .
Yadegar and the ICU he manages have adjusted their protocols .
Now , patients who test positive in his hospital for SARS-CoV2 are not sent home immediately , but tested for inflammatory markers .
Those with elevated inflammatory markers are kept in the hospital with a close eye on their oxygen saturation levels .
If the patient begins to desaturate , the medical team evaluates the patient before starting a course of steroids @ @ @ @ @ @ @ interleukin-6 ) is a powerful mediator for the inflammatory pathway , so an IL-6 inhibitor would prevent a significant amount of inflammation from happening .
Steroids have strong anti-inflammatory effects and also suppress the immune system more broadly .
The two of those do not treat the virus , but the potentially deadly autoimmune response it can cause .
But Yadegar cautioned that “ you have to treat each patient within their own protocol.
” Doctors must always treat the patients in front of them and can not simply rely on these types @ @ @ @ @ @ @ patients .
That ’ s because using an IL-6 inhibitor with steroids would effectively strip the body of its immune response .
If there ’ s a concomitant infection , which is extremely common in the hospital setting and even more so if a patient is on a ventilator , then using this combination of drugs will , almost certainly , kill the patient .
Still , Yadegar and his team have had remarkable success .
They have not put a patient on a ventilator in at least two weeks , and the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the single digits , whereas nationally the mortality rate of critically ill patients has been between 40 % and 70 % .
There ’ s one thing we have known from the start about the COVID-19 virus , which is that it ’ s a tricky and pernicious one .
One of the important things that Yadegar has learned is that patients admitted to the ICU are often not coming in due to the direct effect of the virus , but rather from the out-of-control autoimmune process .
Information like that can @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and we should do our best to ensure they are heard .
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention periodically hosts a Clinical Outreach and Communication Activity , in which clinicians are able to discuss their findings and experiences .
The CDC should be using those frequently to update information about COVID-19 and its multiple disease manifestations and to make the information easily and publicly accessible .
Furthermore , the CDC should be actively seeking this information from the front lines of COVID-19 hot spots , where the most relevant data will be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ clinicians can be assured of clear lines of communication that may help drive down mortality rates in the future and ease the process of reopening the country .

One of the biggest hurdles in dealing with a pandemic caused by a completely new virus is grappling with the sheer amount of unknown information.
In the case of the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV2, this was particularly difficult because the presentation of each patient seemed so vastly different from the previous case.
Furthermore, many patients seemed to improve clinically before deteriorating, requiring an admission to the intensive care unit for weeks at a time. The pernicious behavior of the virus made pandemic response that much more difficult, and the unpredictable nature of the disease consumed and strained health care resources.
Physicians who were treating COVID-19 patients took note and communicated to others by phone call, conference, or social media, but there was no central repository for their experiences, which ensured that the virus spread much faster than information.
Now, approximately four months since the first reported case in America, we are beginning to understand why.
Stumped By a Range of Symptoms
Dr. Thomas Yadegar, a critical care physician for 20 years and now director of the intensive care unit at Providence Cedars-Sinai Tarzana Medical Center in Tarzana, California, has been on the front lines of the pandemic response.
The first time one of his patients deteriorated, he was completely stumped for the first time in his two decades in the ICU.
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Many of his patients were in acute respiratory distress. But many other patients were experiencing abnormal coagulation, inflammatory heart disease, and some were even experiencing neurological deficits and weakened muscles.
“I have 20 years of critical care experience, and I can’t explain what just happened to my patient,” Yadegar said.
Dr. Yadegar Says He’s Found the Common Thread
One evening after an exhausting shift, he sat down and pored over patient charts for all those cases, searching for a common thread. Finally, after one of the worst headaches of his life, he found it.
It was inflammation.
Early in the pandemic, Yadegar’s unit used treatment guidelines that came from doctors around the world, which recommended avoiding anti-inflammatory treatment and recommended early and aggressive use of ventilators to prevent patients from declining further.
But those guidelines were aimed at treating a severe viral respiratory disease by using a ventilator to assist with oxygenating the blood while the body uses its inflammatory pathways to mount a response to the virus.
Those guidelines did not address the treatment for when other organ systems began to fail.
The only way to explain the highly complex disease course that seems to change from one patient to the next is that the virus is causing an autoimmune response.
In fact, using a ventilator is a highly invasive procedure, and the repeated and forced inspiration of air irritates the lungs, which feeds back into the inflammatory cycle. Many patients, once on a ventilator, never recover.
The only way to explain the highly complex disease course that seems to change from one patient to the next is that the virus is causing an autoimmune response, in which the body’s natural defense mechanisms go haywire and begin destroying the body it’s trying to protect.
The disease course is so unpredictable because every person’s immune system is unique to that person.
This phenomenon is not unheard of, and a common virus, Epstein-Barr virus, is known for potentially initiating the body’s inflammatory pathways to attack the nervous system and causing Guillain-Barre syndrome.
The main difference with SARS-CoV2 is that it’s much more efficient at doing this — and often in a catastrophic manner.
Adjusted Protocols Lead to Remarkable Success
Yadegar and the ICU he manages have adjusted their protocols. Now, patients who test positive in his hospital for SARS-CoV2 are not sent home immediately, but tested for inflammatory markers. Those with elevated inflammatory markers are kept in the hospital with a close eye on their oxygen saturation levels. If the patient begins to desaturate, the medical team evaluates the patient before starting a course of steroids and an IL-6 inhibitor.
IL-6 (interleukin-6) is a powerful mediator for the inflammatory pathway, so an IL-6 inhibitor would prevent a significant amount of inflammation from happening. Steroids have strong anti-inflammatory effects and also suppress the immune system more broadly.
The two of those do not treat the virus, but the potentially deadly autoimmune response it can cause.
But Yadegar cautioned that “you have to treat each patient within their own protocol.” Doctors must always treat the patients in front of them and cannot simply rely on these types of drugs for all critically ill COVID-19 patients.
They have not put a patient on a ventilator in at least two weeks, and the mortality rate in their ICU has been in the single digits, whereas nationally the mortality rate of critically ill patients has been between 40% and 70%.
That’s because using an IL-6 inhibitor with steroids would effectively strip the body of its immune response. If there’s a concomitant infection, which is extremely common in the hospital setting and even more so if a patient is on a ventilator, then using this combination of drugs will, almost certainly, kill the patient.
Still, Yadegar and his team have had remarkable success. They have not put a patient on a ventilator in at least two weeks, and the mortality rate in their ICU has been in the single digits, whereas nationally the mortality rate of critically ill patients has been between 40% and 70%.
There’s one thing we have known from the start about the COVID-19 virus, which is that it’s a tricky and pernicious one.
One of the important things that Yadegar has learned is that patients admitted to the ICU are often not coming in due to the direct effect of the virus, but rather from the out-of-control autoimmune process.
Clinicians Need Clear Lines of Communication
Information like that can only be had from frontline clinicians, and we should do our best to ensure they are heard.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention periodically hosts a Clinical Outreach and Communication Activity, in which clinicians are able to discuss their findings and experiences.
The CDC should be using those frequently to update information about COVID-19 and its multiple disease manifestations and to make the information easily and publicly accessible.
Furthermore, the CDC should be actively seeking this information from the front lines of COVID-19 hot spots, where the most relevant data will be found.
With steps like these, clinicians can be assured of clear lines of communication that may help drive down mortality rates in the future and ease the process of reopening the country.
Copyright 2020 The Daily Signal


thestream--2020-05-05--Don’t End #MeToo. Replace It With Something Better

Step into my time machine .
Let ’ s go back to … September 29 , 2018 .
I was sitting in a Maryland motel listening to actor Matt Damon yell my name on Saturday Night Live .
Damon was in a skit playing Brett Kavanaugh .
As you may know , he ’ s a friend of mine from Georgetown Prep .
That ’ s the Maryland high school we both attended from 1979–1983 .
Kavanaugh had been nominated to be on the Supreme Court in 2018 .
Just before the final vote by the Judiciary Committee a letter @ @ @ @ @ @ @ alleged that at a party sometime in 1982 ( although the year kept changing ) Kavanaugh committed sexual misconduct .
I was also named in the letter .
Its author , a woman named Christine Blasey Ford , said that I was in the room when the alleged attack took place .
Blasey Ford ’ s story was never corroborated .
Her best friend Leland Keyser would eventually say she was put under pressure , and her reputation threatened , to verify the story .
I did have a drinking problem for much @ @ @ @ @ @ @ would be an exaggeration to claim , as Damon cried out , “ Mark Judge can ’ t remember entire swathes of his life !
” ( When the line exploded I instantly got a text from a musician I know .
“ Dude you ’ re immortalized !
” ) The experience left me understanding that the media is broken .
In fact the sexual revolution of the 1960s left a fallout worse than the coronavirus .
The Silence After the Hunt Even longtime media critics stood stunned watching the press transform @ @ @ @ @ @ @ my high school yearbook and trying to interpret slang in order to find something terrible .
A Prep friend of mine called .
He expressed concern .
But then , recalling some of our jokes from when we were teenagers , we both just broke out laughing .
The entire world had gone mad and was asking us to answer for drinking beer .
It was like that line from the 1987 movie Broadcast News ( also about media corruption ) .
“ Things finally got so off-the-chart bad that it just became @ @ @ @ @ @ @ never met .
They rushed stories to air that were obviously false .
Some rifled through my car and interrogated people whom claimed to know me but in fact did not .
The Washington Post profiled a writer , Mike Sacks .
He actually said : “ I wrote about Brett Kavanaugh and Mark Judge and their type in my new book .
I didn ’ t .
But I did .
If that makes sense .
Maryland !
!
!
” No , it doesn ’ t make any sense .
But @ @ @ @ @ @ @ mattered was the hunt , and I was the fox .
Tara Reade ’ s sexual assault charge against Joe Biden has much more corroboration than Blasey Ford ’ s did .
Witnesses back up Reade ’ s claim .
We have undisputed proof that she did in fact work for Biden .
There ’ s a phone call her mother made to Larry King Live in 1993 complaining about her daughter ’ s treatment .
Imagine if such evidence had existed in my case !
It ’ s a good bet that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fun of Joe Biden .
The media and Hollywood have created a phalanx to protect the Democratic presidential nominee .
Seeing the left defend Biden and the media trying to avoid the story and comparing that to the cyclone of insanity that engulfed me , critics are calling the hypocrisy so vast that it spells the end of the # MeToo era .
A better idea than abolishing # MeToo is for the culture to return to the ideals of fairness , due process and honor .
These are sometimes hard values to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ much easier to spread disinformation .
But after the freak show I endured — a circus which now has Biden in the center ring — I hope that people will return to such fundamentals .
Liberals who acted without honor during the Kavanaugh fiasco are now , of course , happy to rediscover what they previously shunned .
Their switchback is the result of political calculation and not any sense of honor .
But at least rumor and slander has less of a chance of ruining lives .
# MeToo was a response @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
It spelled a reaction to the entire sexual revolution of the 1960s .
At its most defensible , that revolution was an attempt to deal with the superstition and fear surrounding sex .
To acknowledge that it was something that people didn ’ t need to be so shamefaced about .
However , like many revolutions that start off with the idea of increasing freedom , it resulted in a lot of slavery .
Men often tried to take advantage of the new ethic and mistreated women .
They left behind millions @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have different kinds of souls whose strengths complement each other .
But we learned to pretend that they are really the same in every respect .
The result was a lot of confusion .
The problem wasn ’ t with the usually conservative suspects , either .
Libertine Hugh Hefner promoted abortion but railed against feminism .
The popular culture pulsed with sensationalism and exploitation .
The 1970 film M*A*S*H is loaded with cruelty towards women .
A clip from the 1979 movie Meatballs , a comedy that made Bill Murray a star @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a female colleague .
Today the scene looks much more like an assault .
The high-octane 1980s included massive objectification of women .
It just as often came from the left as from the right .
Support The Stream : Serving the Body During This Crisis With Facts .
Faith .
And No Fear .
We can ’ t go back to the 1950s .
And we shouldn ’ t go “ forward ” to a full-blown McCarthyism of the left .
We face instead the hard work of due process and the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ formation of mobs .
As I learned from my experience , mobs seem to be a default function of human nature going back millennia .
The most famous American example is the Salem witch trials , but there are plenty of others .
In The Devils of Loudon , Aldous Huxley wrote about the mass hysteria that surround a village in 17th-century France .
The great 1946 film Panique dramatizes a crowd gone berserk on rumor and innuendo .
We Need the Healing Only God Brings More recently , see the 2020 novel @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
It explores the real life madness that overtook a Norwegian town in 1617 .
After forty men drown in a Christmas Eve storm , the women of a small village have to fend for themselves .
Their situation raises questions from theocratic authorities , who send an inquisitor , Absalom Cornet , who investigates for witchery .
Reading The Mercies reminded me of a moment in the Kavanaugh hearings .
Senator Lindsey Graham asked some hysterical protesters demanding Brett ’ s blood , “ Why don ’ t we dunk him in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” The Mercies is divided into three sections : “ Storm , ” “ Arrival ” and “ Hunt.
” When I was being hunted by the hyenas in the media during the height of the 2018 SCOTUS war , I drove down to the beach at the Eastern Shore of Delaware .
There ’ s a house there not far from the place where Joe Biden has a summer home .
The roiling Atlantic Ocean seemed symbolic not just of the chaos surrounding me , but the subconscious life of America since @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I felt as if for the first time I truly understood the story about Jesus walking on water .
It wasn ’ t only a sign that God has dominion over his own creation , but a metaphor for the Lord as healer of the sins and complexes that roil the deep waters of the subconscious .
America is still suffering from a deep spiritual despair about the darker side of the sexual revolution , but the overreaction has ushered in a new form of tyranny .
Ending # MeToo because Joe Biden @ @ @ @ @ @ @ us free .
Mark Judge is a journalist and filmmaker whose writings have appeared in the Washington Post , the New York Times , the Wall Street Journal , and the Daily Caller .

Step into my time machine. Let’s go back to … September 29, 2018. I was sitting in a Maryland motel listening to actor Matt Damon yell my name on Saturday Night Live. Damon was in a skit playing Brett Kavanaugh. As you may know, he’s a friend of mine from Georgetown Prep. That’s the Maryland high school we both attended from 1979–1983. Kavanaugh had been nominated to be on the Supreme Court in 2018.
Just before the final vote by the Judiciary Committee a letter was leaked to the media. It alleged that at a party sometime in 1982 (although the year kept changing) Kavanaugh committed sexual misconduct. I was also named in the letter. Its author, a woman named Christine Blasey Ford, said that I was in the room when the alleged attack took place.
“Dude, You’re Immortalized!”
Blasey Ford’s story was never corroborated. Her best friend Leland Keyser would eventually say she was put under pressure, and her reputation threatened, to verify the story. I did have a drinking problem for much of my young life. But it would be an exaggeration to claim, as Damon cried out, “Mark Judge can’t remember entire swathes of his life!” (When the line exploded I instantly got a text from a musician I know. “Dude you’re immortalized!”) The experience left me understanding that the media is broken. In fact the sexual revolution of the 1960s left a fallout worse than the coronavirus.
The Silence After the Hunt
Even longtime media critics stood stunned watching the press transform into vipers. Senators were going through my high school yearbook and trying to interpret slang in order to find something terrible. A Prep friend of mine called. He expressed concern. But then, recalling some of our jokes from when we were teenagers, we both just broke out laughing. The entire world had gone mad and was asking us to answer for drinking beer. It was like that line from the 1987 movie Broadcast News (also about media corruption). “Things finally got so off-the-chart bad that it just became funny.”
The Biden accusation has much more corroboration than Blasey Ford’s.
Reporters interviewed people I had never met. They rushed stories to air that were obviously false. Some rifled through my car and interrogated people whom claimed to know me but in fact did not. The Washington Post profiled a writer, Mike Sacks. He actually said: “I wrote about Brett Kavanaugh and Mark Judge and their type in my new book. I didn’t. But I did. If that makes sense. Maryland!!!” No, it doesn’t make any sense. But that didn’t matter. What mattered was the hunt, and I was the fox.
A Hypocrisy So Vast
Tara Reade’s sexual assault charge against Joe Biden has much more corroboration than Blasey Ford’s did. Witnesses back up Reade’s claim. We have undisputed proof that she did in fact work for Biden. There’s a phone call her mother made to Larry King Live in 1993 complaining about her daughter’s treatment. Imagine if such evidence had existed in my case!
It’s a good bet that Saturday Night Live will not be making fun of Joe Biden. The media and Hollywood have created a phalanx to protect the Democratic presidential nominee.
Seeing the left defend Biden and the media trying to avoid the story and comparing that to the cyclone of insanity that engulfed me, critics are calling the hypocrisy so vast that it spells the end of the #MeToo era.
The End of #MeToo?
A better idea than abolishing #MeToo is for the culture to return to the ideals of fairness, due process and honor. These are sometimes hard values to live up to. It’s much easier to spread disinformation. But after the freak show I endured — a circus which now has Biden in the center ring — I hope that people will return to such fundamentals. Liberals who acted without honor during the Kavanaugh fiasco are now, of course, happy to rediscover what they previously shunned. Their switchback is the result of political calculation and not any sense of honor. But at least rumor and slander has less of a chance of ruining lives.
A better idea than abolishing #MeToo is for it and the culture to just return to the ideals of fairness, due process and honor.
The Sexual Revolution’s Victims
#MeToo was a response to more than the Hollywood casting couch. It spelled a reaction to the entire sexual revolution of the 1960s. At its most defensible, that revolution was an attempt to deal with the superstition and fear surrounding sex. To acknowledge that it was something that people didn’t need to be so shamefaced about. However, like many revolutions that start off with the idea of increasing freedom, it resulted in a lot of slavery.
Men often tried to take advantage of the new ethic and mistreated women. They left behind millions of fatherless children. Men and women have different kinds of souls whose strengths complement each other. But we learned to pretend that they are really the same in every respect. The result was a lot of confusion. The problem wasn’t with the usually conservative suspects, either.
Libertine Hugh Hefner promoted abortion but railed against feminism. The popular culture pulsed with sensationalism and exploitation. The 1970 film M*A*S*H is loaded with cruelty towards women. A clip from the 1979 movie Meatballs, a comedy that made Bill Murray a star, shows Murray “wrestling” with a female colleague. Today the scene looks much more like an assault. The high-octane 1980s included massive objectification of women. It just as often came from the left as from the right.
Please Support The Stream : Equipping Christians to Think Clearly About the Political, Economic, and Moral Issues of Our Day.
We can’t go back to the 1950s. And we shouldn’t go “forward” to a full-blown McCarthyism of the left. We face instead the hard work of due process and the goal of using reason to prevent the formation of mobs. As I learned from my experience, mobs seem to be a default function of human nature going back millennia. The most famous American example is the Salem witch trials, but there are plenty of others. In The Devils of Loudon, Aldous Huxley wrote about the mass hysteria that surround a village in 17th-century France. The great 1946 film Panique dramatizes a crowd gone berserk on rumor and innuendo.
We Need the Healing Only God Brings
More recently, see the 2020 novel The Mercies, by Kiran Millwood Hargrave. It explores the real life madness that overtook a Norwegian town in 1617. After forty men drown in a Christmas Eve storm, the women of a small village have to fend for themselves. Their situation raises questions from theocratic authorities, who send an inquisitor, Absalom Cornet, who investigates for witchery. Reading The Mercies reminded me of a moment in the Kavanaugh hearings. Senator Lindsey Graham asked some hysterical protesters demanding Brett’s blood, “Why don’t we dunk him in water and see if he floats?”
The Mercies is divided into three sections: “Storm,” “Arrival” and “Hunt.” When I was being hunted by the hyenas in the media during the height of the 2018 SCOTUS war, I drove down to the beach at the Eastern Shore of Delaware. There’s a house there not far from the place where Joe Biden has a summer home. The roiling Atlantic Ocean seemed symbolic not just of the chaos surrounding me, but the subconscious life of America since the sexual revolution of the 1960s.
I felt as if for the first time I truly understood the story about Jesus walking on water. It wasn’t only a sign that God has dominion over his own creation, but a metaphor for the Lord as healer of the sins and complexes that roil the deep waters of the subconscious. America is still suffering from a deep spiritual despair about the darker side of the sexual revolution, but the overreaction has ushered in a new form of tyranny. Ending #MeToo because Joe Biden is now the accused will not set us free.
Mark Judge is a journalist and filmmaker whose writings have appeared in the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Daily Caller.