4 ms·
I expect there's a whole class of pandemic-induced, alcoholism related deaths that will be severely delayed. If alcoholism can be acquired, which I believe it c
by nilespotter 4y ago
I expect there's a whole class of pandemic-induced, alcoholism related deaths that will be severely delayed. If alcoholism can be acquired, which I believe it can be, alcoholics minted by the lockdowns could have decades before they start to drink themselves to death. For example the article mentions alcoholic cirrhosis -- see below, my liver is fine. I would speculate that the increases the CDC notes here are existing alcoholics whose physical deterioration was accelerated by the lockdowns and don't include those who began drinking alcoholically during the pandemic.
I've been sober for 6 years and drank like a fucking maniac for 15 years before that, averaging roughly 25 drinks per night for the later half of that. Even through some of that level of drinking I could show up to work the next day and turn in something that passed for a productive workday as a programmer. I expect there are a lot of people at this stage now.
- pclmulqdq 4y agoDeaths from other drugs also rose sharply in the last few years, associated with the pandemic and the lockdowns. Alcoholism does seem to be a bit of a slower burn because it's a lot harder to overdose on.
- hotpotamus 4y agoI feel like I experienced a bizzaro pandemic (though I've experienced that feeling most of my life, so why should the pandemic be any different I suppose?). For instance, I never want to work from home again in my life after living in what amounted to solitary confinement for over a year. Being metaphorically chained to a desk alone in a room for 8 hours a day for the next 30ish years sounds like diet Hell to me now; being permanently chained to it for eternity would be actual hell. The other instance is the alcohol thing - I'd say my drinking was similar to you maybe minus a couple years, but I've not drank since May 2020 now. I've also never had any reason to take a covid test and in fact have had no respiratory illness at all for the last 3 years after a lifetime of getting a cold or two every year and the flu on occasion. (I wonder if the covid vaccines I take have any cross-protection against common cold coronaviruses?) So who knows, maybe I'll live longer now that I don't drink and actually leave my house and walk around a bit at work, but it's weird how antithetical my experience seems to have been to the average of the pandemic.
- cma 4y agoMost places you could still go outside, parks, camping, hiking, beaches, etc. other than a few brief shutdowns for places with admission booths and stuff.
- taolegal 4y agoI remember dog parks being chained and barricaded, skate parks being filled with sand and nutjobs dressed up like the grim reaper while people were on a sunny beach (you couldn't get better ventilation).
- cma 4y agoI remember golf courses being designated essential businesses.
- taolegal 4y agoAre you in favor of workers' rights or not? Every job is essential, insofar as declaring any job nonessential under the justification of not-obviously-effective public health policy is arbitrary and an obvious overreach ripe for abuse. Never mind that sport is healthy. Especially outdoor sport. While the establishment was busy huddling people inside, they should have been making people bask in the sun. Sun kills coronavirus fast, and hard to imagine better ventilation than open air.
- hotpotamus 4y agoI tried to get an hour of "yard time" in every day, but it didn't help much.
- dham 4y agoWhich is why all pandemic policies only exchanges lives, never saves them. Should have just let it rip, been done in July-August of 2020. Now we'll leak deaths slowly for years if not decades.