During the lockdowns, a broad spectrum of medical professionals observed that people were not receiving proper medical treatment. It is believed that this has led to an increase in deaths from heart attacks^[1], cancer, diabetes and more.^[2] The UK experienced a dramatic increase in dementia deaths during the lockdown.^[3] Fully two-thirds of excess deaths in nursing homes were not COVID related^[4], while at the same time about 40% of hospital beds remained unoccupied.^[5]

There has been a significant increase of people dying at home from non-COVID causes as well,^[6] including depression and other mental health issues.^[7] In Australia, from March to August 2020, six times as many people died from suicide than from COVID.^[8] In Japan, it stands at eight times.^[9] Twenty-eight percent of parents in quarantine with their children are later diagnosed with a trauma-related health disorder.^[10] In Israel, domestic violence reports increased by 95%,^[11] and there was a 40% increase in anxiety and depression during the lockdown.^[12] By October 2020 after a steady increase, fully 20% of the Israeli public had been diagnosed with high or very high levels of depression^[13] and 30% with high or extremely high anxiety.^[14] Even the elderly, who are at the highest risk from COVID, led protests against the “lockdowns”, stating that they’d rather die from COVID than from loneliness.^[15] A meta-analysis of over 100 studies on the cost/benefits of lockdowns concluded that "Lockdowns are not just an inefficient policy, they must rank as one of the greatest peacetime policy disasters of all time."^[16]

See COVID and kids for more on the negative effects on kids. 

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