100s of Doctors Warn Trump of 'Exponential Negative Health Consequences' of Shutdown
'The downstream health effects are being massively under-estimated'
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Over 600 doctors have warned President Donald Trump in a signed a letter urging him to end the "national shutdown," which has been in place for months to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
The doctors described the widespread state lockdown orders as a "mass casualty incident" with "exponentially growing health consequences."
The letter highlights a series of consequences, which include missing routine checkups for heart problems, cancer, increases in substance abuse, and financial instability leading to "[p]overty and financial uncertainty."
"We are alarmed at what appears to be the lack of consideration for the future health of our patients," the doctors say in their letter.
"The downstream health effects ... are being massively under-estimated and under-reported. This is an order of magnitude error."
The letter adds:
"The millions of casualties of a continued shutdown will be hiding in plain sight, but they will be called alcoholism, homelessness, suicide, heart attack, stroke, or kidney failure."
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"In youths it will be called financial instability, unemployment, despair, drug addiction, unplanned pregnancies, poverty, and abuse."
"Because the harm is diffuse, there are those who hold that it does not exist. We, the undersigned, know otherwise."
Dr. Mark McDonald, a psychiatrist, noted one of his patients suffering from depression died about two weeks ago of a fentanyl overdose.
He blames the government-imposed shutdown for the patient's death.
"She had to stay in her apartment, essentially in house arrest as most people here in [Los Angeles] were for weeks and weeks, she could not see her therapist -- she could speak to the therapist over the phone, but she couldn't see her in person," McDonald said.
"She could not attend any of her group meetings, which we're helping to maintain her abstinence from opiates ... and she relapsed into depression."
"She was just too withdrawn to ask for help," McDonald continued.
A Doctor a Day Letter - Signed by Fox News on Scribd
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"She was simply trying to escape from her pain... I do blame these actions by the government for her death."
The news comes as many Democratic State Governors are threatening citizens with jail for defying lockdown orders.
Last week, A group of doctors had filed a lawsuit against Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, arguing there are no medical grounds for her lockdown measures.
The coalition of Michigan health practices argued the lockdown is “risking lives and imperiling health.”
The lawsuit was filed against Whitmer, State Attorney General Dana Nessel, and state health director Robert Gordon.
That filing the case included Wellston Medical Center, Primary Health Services, Jeffery Gulick, and the owners of Grand Health Partners.
Last month, a group of California doctors called on governments to lift lockdown citing a pending "public health crisis."
ER doctors Dan Erickson and Artin Massihi of Accelerated Urgent Care argued government lockdown measures are having a reverse impact.
The group insisted the shut down was not an appropriate reaction to what current data shows about COVID-19, but the measures are instead causing measurable public health issues.
