Over the past several weeks we’ve seen America come together to fight the coronavirus pandemic. From my constituency in Austin to New York City and to Seattle, our nation’s first responders and medical professionals have performed above and beyond the call of duty under grueling and stressful circumstances.
We must continue their important efforts to save lives, but in doing so, we must also think more broadly about what that means.
While government leaders have shut down much of our economy in response to the coronavirus, we should recognize that those efforts could cost lives in other ways.
Multiple psychological studies have found a strong correlation between an increase in unemployment and a rise in the suicide rate.