Hundreds of Doctors sign letter urging Trump to reopen the economy!

So should we listen to them? 

The red group receives highest priority. The next priority is to ensure that the other two groups do not deteriorate a level. Decades of research have shown that by strictly following this algorithm, we save the maximum number of lives.

Millions of Americans are already at triage level red. These include 150,000 Americans per month who would have had a new cancer detected through routine screening that hasn’t happened, millions who have missed routine dental care to fix problems strongly linked to heart disease/death, and preventable cases of stroke, heart attack, and child abuse. Suicide hotline phone calls have increased 600%.

Tens of millions are at triage level yellow. Liquor sales have increased 300-600%, cigarettes sales have increased, rent has gone unpaid, family relationships have become frayed, and millions of well-child check-ups have been missed.

Hundreds of millions are at triage level green. These are people who currently are solvent, but at risk should economic conditions worsen. Poverty and financial uncertainty is closely linked to poor health.

To be clear, I am not a fan of listening to these sorts of letter writers. In a country of 327 million people you could find a few hundred people to sign a letter in support of almost anything, while simultaneously finding a few hundred other people to sign a letter in opposition to that exact same thing. In most case, you could find legitimate serious experts on both sides of the debate.

But I think this sort of letter needs to be heard, because we have sort of forgotten that there are still millions and millions of Americans who have other medical problems not associated with Covid-19 who have for all practical purposes have been put at the back of the line or just ignored all together.

How many people will see much worse negative effects from cancer and other diseases because they had to wait several weeks for a simple screening? How many mentally ill people were not able to see their therapist because they were shut down and not seeing patients because of Covid-19. How will these large increase in alcohol and cigarette sales affect our long term health as a country?

As pointed out, suicides assistance is up 600% and our increase in actual suicides has been unprecedented (and will likely continue to get worse). For every 1% rise in unemployment you see a bigger rise in both suicides and various overdoses.

Science or at least a scientific approach to handling something like this REQUIRES us to take everything into consideration, not just Covid-19. While it may seem prudent to listen to the epidemiologists who are "only" concerned with stopping the spread, in reality it would be way more prudent to listen to "everyone" with a stake in the health of the United States citizens.

It makes no medical, scientific, or practical sense to spend a ton of resources to prevent people from getting sick from one thing, while promoting more people to get sick (and possibly die) from a slew of other potential sicknesses. It doesn't take a math minor to suggest that an action that saves 100,000 lives from one thing, but promotes the deaths of 250,000 people from other causes is not a life cost effective response.

It's time to take our blinders off and look at the big picture. I know this might be tough for some to hear, but our response to Covid-19 (in the end) will very likely be seen as overkill (and a mistake) when all of the collateral damage eventually gets factored in.