Is Lockdown Worth It? - Coronavirus vs The Economy - TLDR News

It's controversial to talk about the value of human life, but sometimes it's just necessary. So in this video, we ran the maths to try and work how much economic damage can be justified to save lives.

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[cadventures]

Increased unemployment has a well documented link to deaths, as does economic downturn. I feel you should have focused a bit harder on the deaths the lockdown will cause, rather than just focusing on suicides and saying Trump was just lying about the other ways lives will be lost.. Seemed a bit one-sided to me.

[FuZZbaLLbee]

I remember a line from The big short. It whent something like “Every 1% unemployment is x number of deaths”

Also suicide isn’t the only death related to crippling economics. Homelessness, not getting proper medical care etc are also causes of death.

[donaldkeith]

As somebody with 60% lung capacity, I prefer to live, there's still a few things I want to do,

I'd rather die for freedom, than live as the pawn of a tyrannical government.

[royraven]

2:40
This is a rare bout of ignorance on your part.

Record definition suicide isn't the only type of death that will go up during a recession.

Drug OD's are something that are going to skyrocket in a recession. Homelessness goes way up putting people at greater risks of death directly or indirectly. Also, crime goes way up. People commiting crime in order to survive will lead to them making decisions in a standoff against law enforcement that they usually wouldn't make if they weren't desperate.

All of these things, and more, don't count directly towards the suicide rate, but we all know are decisions humans will make when put in desperate situations. For you to not even consider these is honestly disappointing.

[thomwardell]

I love the speed with which you’re uploading videos, glad they’re being monetised again too!

[Kwippy]

It isn't one or the other, health and economy are directly linked. Already many people of all ages are suffering mental health issues due to the corona crisis. Mental health is also directly linked to physical health. A severely depressed economy will have serious and long lasting impact on health for everyone. Covid-19 mainly kill the elderly, but suicide caused by loss of livelihood is going to kill younger people.

[yunicoorn]

This is a difficult topic. While I understand that one has to break these things down into numbers and statistics to transfer the value of a life to something tangible, to do so you have to distance yourself from humans lives in general. When looking at humans as a group that's easier to do, but when you think about individuals it becomes a lot harder.


My father-in-law is more of a father to me than my biological father ever was, and I would say his life is invaluable and no amount of money would be too much if it could save him. To hear politicians and others speak about how it's necessary to have these people die so that others can be saved in the future leaves a bad taste in my mouth because I'm not emotionally connected to those future people in the way I am to my father-in-law. Even though I understand what they're saying, I can't accept it, and it leaves my head and my heart at odds with each other.


"We can care deeply - selflessly - about those we know, but that empathy rarely extends beyond our line of sight."

[Jaqaroo]

Well, that was interesting, but I certainly had to pay attention - 14 life-minutes pretty well spent...

[domaspaukstys]

We crippled economy for less... Just look at 2008 ;)

[xHaniffax]

If the system breaks because we have to prioritise human lives over profit then it was broken to begin with.

[Dont_be_Silly]

Economy is life. You can't unassociate both. Save freedom, people know they risk

[bio-]

Just an academic question: Wouldn't be most of those lost lifeyears pensions and thus a budgetary gain ??

[ChristianIce]

Seriously speaking there are two big factors you didn't take into consideration.
The first is that you can't simply multiply the number of cases and the number of deaths.
If you have 100 cases in intensive care, meaning there is an attempt to save their lives, is not like having 10.000 cases, where there's no space in the intensive care so the mortality is much much higher, with people simply dying in their homes without the ability to treat them.
Also, since you can't multiply the beds in the hospitals, it would affect every other person with another disease, because other illnesses are not in vacation leaving Corona al the work, meaning you would have additional deaths of people you would normally be able to cure.
So, the scenario without a sever lockdown can't be just a linear moltiplication of deaths, but it's indeed exponential.

[Capt.Thunder]

A trick question: saving the economy also saves lives. Creating a great depression will destroy both us and the third world, and the third world also relies on us for medical assistance, so all of our collective production is vital.

We can still take sensible precautions - isolating vulnerable people, washing your hands, drinking plenty of water, wearing gloves, maintaining some social distancing where possible, working from home if able, willingly infecting healthy people who will suffer no serious effects from it so that we speed up herd immunity.

Also, bear in mind that Corona virus is to become seasonal. How many years are we going to to have our economy shut down for? We can't fight nature, we have to be realistic.

[holliswong]

Love it. Controversial. But using data, maths and logic to talk about it, it’s why I love your work.

[Pandapucks]

If we consider things solely from an psychopathic economic sense, covid-19 can be a godsend. If governments can let the old and sick with chronic medical conditions die off, just imagine the amount of healthcare costs that can be saved, on top of pension payments. Most of these people are less economically productive anyway. Countries like Japan will be rejuvenated.

[khrystinamarina]

We are not simply choosing between the economy and lives, we are choosing between lives vs lives. People's vital treatments for cancer, copd, etc has been cancelled, more people are dying due to heart attacks, suicide and domestic violence already, and it will increase! Not to mention the devastating effects an economic crash of this magnitude will have on people. We also do not have complete and fully understood data on this virus or the lockdowns, so we dont REALLY know if it will kill as many people as suggested, if it is worse than other seasonal respiratory diseases, or how effective lockdowns are. I also question whether we would have initiated lockdowns if Italy had not made the decision to do so. We also record the deaths for coronavirus differently to how we do for seasonal flu! We are causing almost immeasurable suffering across the world with these lockdowns.
Finally, we also seem to have forgotten that there is a fundamental philosophical question about what it means to live and be alive. Part of that is taking risks. We know we risk our lives every time we leave the house. The fact that life can, and will end, is what makes it so fundamentally beautiful.
And before anyone jumps on me, I am following the rules, even though I do not agree with them.

[aowen]

I would like to know how many life years would have been saved if we started the lock-down sooner and had not flirted with heard immunity.

[mremumerm]

as an actuary i'm actually fine with your back of envelop calculations, and each time I was coming up with a "what about?" you ended up addressing them.... great work as usual

[MJamilHoque]

This is a great time to rethink the way economy is structured. An opportunity to implement something different. Something that brings citizens of the world together.

But that one change will never happen. Because greed is with the rich and the rich have control of it all.