CONCLUSION
Media, public health officials, politicians, and most Americans have been consumed by the specter of death from/with COVID-19 for more than two years. This led to a singular-focused response, blind to the reality of unintended consequences. Leaders pushed never-before-tried policies and experimental products on their citizens pursuant to the myopic obsession of a new respiratory disease, even years after its discovery. During this time, America experienced its deadliest two-year period in 100 years, including its “deadliest year ever” in 2021.
Sadly, provisional data show heightened all-cause mortality persisted during the first half of 2022. Although statewide mortality was down about 25%, a jaw-dropping 60% more Mainers between ages 25 and 44 died compared to the pre-pandemic average.
Little doubt remains that lockdowns had their own contribution to all-cause mortality, either through delayed health screenings leading to prolonged illness, or increased isolation leading to greater deaths of despair—as evidenced by an inflamed drug overdose crisis which is worse than it has ever been. Assuming that all drug overdose-related fatalities in Maine occurred among those between ages 15 and 64, drug deaths accounted for more than 90% of the excess deaths among that group in 2020, and more than 50% in 2021.
In late March 2020, Gov. Mills was warned by some close advisors of some potential detrimental effects of her stay-at-home order. As reported in a Bangor Daily News article, emails uncovered from a Freedom of Access Act (FOAA) request show Peter Mills, Executive Director of the Maine Turnpike Authority—and the governor’s brother—expressed skepticism to the type of shutdowns many governors were enacting around the country, including in Maine. “Shelter in place is an unenforceable meat axe remedy best reserved for active shooter situations,” he wrote to the governor on March 24, 2020. In hindsight, this advice was among the best Gov. Mills received from her inner circle. It was grounded in reality and human nature, not twisted, fearful pandemic thinking. Too bad that she did not take it seriously.
While the initial effects of the shutdowns would have been devastating on their own, continuing the ethos of social distancing and constant fear of others will likely prove to be the most destructive. The data bear this out. This analysis shows that excess deaths from drug and alcohol abuse, suicide, and failure of the circulatory system and endrocrine system accounted for more than one-third of Maine’s overall excess mortality over 2020 and 2021. While these deaths may be seen by some as a “result of the pandemic,” they were not a result of viral infection, but more likely the unintended costs of lockdown policies. Maine Policy warned against the potential costs of the governor’s response, but she didn’t listen.
In an era of marked by historic levels of public mismanagement and incompetence contributing to ”America’s deadliest year ever,” the public must demand scrutiny from all levels of government. Public health officials must allow for independent review of their agencies’ actions, processes, incentives, and culture if they wish to regain the public’s trust, which they so carelessly lost over the last two-and-a-half years.