Thread by @Gurdur

1/n OK, this article by @li88yinc made me giggle. It's allegedly about #suicide. Get your outrage at me in now, before I get really started. Prepare for me being woundingly sarcastic. The article makes several catastrophic errors.

thepostmillennial.com/report-more-pe…

2/n With reference to the graphic below, the headline of the article:
NO, THEY FREAKING WON'T.

But don't take my word for it. Follow the evidence along with me in this thread instead.

3/n @tpostmillennial, The Post Millennial, is a Canadian media outlet. For the sake of those like @li88yinc, normally I like @tpostmillennial; they dare say what's true when others won't. But on this occasion, this article is a pile of trash. But don't take my word for it: attend

4/n In 2017, 4,157 people committed #suicide in Canada, making it the ninth largest cause of death there that year. Let's estimate (reasons later) that 6,000 people commit suicide this year because loneliness, despair etc..
Well. In 2 months, 4,583 have died of #COVID19 there.

5/n *Anyone* here think #Canada can keep the #COVID19 death-toll under 6,000 for this whole year? Well?
Estimating a high of 6,000 suicides for this year would only be parity of deaths from COVID_19 at most; likely, much lower compared to COVID_19.

https://twitter.com/Gurdur/status/1258798420434792456

6/n In 2017, 5,821 suicides in the UK. Estimate (reasons later) 9,000 suicides this year. The UK *already* has 30,689 *confirmed* #COVID19 deaths. It's only May.
USA: 48,344 suicides for the whole of 2018. Estimate: 75,000 for 2020.
75,852 *confirmed* #COVID19 deaths *already*.

7/n no srsly the @tpostmillennial prints this, no srsly. "the impact of suicide could take a far greater toll on human lives than the coronavirus."
I am so so sorry, LOL NO.

8/n This is the buried lede, this is the payload of @tpostmillennial's missile, this is the warhead on their ICBM. This is the WHY of this article. And now we come to the crux of why this is so blitheringly wrong, so crassly dumb, so idiotically maladroit.

9/n The Australian research is for AUSTRALIA. Ozland. Good ol' Oz. I'm an Ozzie. Fair dinky-di, I am.
All of 97 have died so far in Australia of #COVID19. Because lockdowns.
2,866 people died of suicide in Australia in 2016. Maybe 4,500 this year.

https://twitter.com/Gurdur/status/1258237150283411457

10/n If #COVID19 was allowed to rampage unchecked in Australia, at the very least 55,500 would die of it there. Which would be significantly higher than a #suicide toll of 4,500.

https://twitter.com/Gurdur/status/1258239134327545860

11/n @tpostmillennial took a mental-health study which was for Australia, which has had all of ninety-seven deaths from #COVID19, because of successful lockdowns / quarantines, and applied the #suicide estimations to the whole world.
That CRUMP you just heard was my head/desk.

12/12 If you care about #suicide, REACH OUT. Go visit the olds & others in isolation, yell at them through windows, telephone them, REGULARLY. If you're feeling suicidal, REACH OUT. Ring a suicide hotline. Talk to someone. DM me.
But ffs don't trust @tpostmillennial on this.

Addendum: oh I forgot to say, why the suicide estimations for 2020 throughout this thread. Because the Australian researchers estimated a high of 150% for this year over last, because unemployment etc., & I ran with that 150%. But do do your best if you want to try flaming me.