900,000 US Deaths Expected to Result from Unemployment During the Pandemic, New Economic Study...

https://fee.org/articles/unemployment-during-the-pandemic-expected-to-cause-900-000-us-deaths-new-economic-study-finds/?utm_source=email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2020_FEEDaily
The toll of the coronavirus has been severe. But a new study has found that the collective response to the virus may ultimately claim more lives than the virus itself.

In a new National Bureau for Economic Research paper, researchers from Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University, and Duke University concluded that a staggering 890,000 additional deaths may result over the next 15 years stemming from actions taken to mitigate the spread of the virus.

“Our results suggest that the toll of lives claimed by the SARS-CoV-2 virus far exceeds those immediately related to the acute COVID-19 critical illness and that the recession caused by the pandemic can jeopardize population health for the next two decades,” the researchers said.

Specifically, the researchers cite unemployment spikes from lockdowns and other government restrictions that were two to five times larger than typical unemployment shocks.

Rising unemployment has long been correlated with higher death rates.

“We ... predict that the shock will disproportionately affect African-Americans and women, over a short horizon,” the researchers said, “while white men might suffer large consequences over longer horizons.”

Sad, But Not a Surprise
The findings are, to say the least, disheartening. Americans have already experienced more than 400,000 deaths from the virus, and government efforts to slow the spread of the virus have also taken a severe toll.

Yet, the findings should not be surprising. Rising unemployment has long been correlated with higher death rates. A 1979 study concluded that for every 10 percent increase in unemployment, mortality increased by 1.2 percent. For this reason, social scientists have long argued that employment and economic growth are essential components of a healthy society.

“Economic growth is the single most important factor relating to length of life,” said Yale School of Medicine professor M. Harvey Brenner in 2002, following completion of a pivotal study exploring the relationship between unemployment and mortality. “Employment is the essential element of social status and it establishes a person as a contributing member of society and also has very important implications for self-esteem.”

The Yale study’s findings are not unique. A 2014 article in Harvard Public Health magazine points to an abundance of research that reaches a similar conclusion: employment disruptions come with severe costs to mental and physical health. The body of research includes a 2011 meta-analysis—published in Social Science & Medicine—that concluded the mortality risk was 63 percent higher for individuals who experienced unemployment than those who did not.