Where are the Suicide, Opioid and Alcohol Death Stats?

PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Release: April 4, 2020 3:00 PM

Contact: Tom Zawistowski, 330-592-1848, [email protected]

DEWINE AND ACTON MUST RELEASE OHIO DEATH STATS FOR

REGULAR FLU, SUICIDES, OPIOID DEATHS, AND ALCOHOL DEATHS

Akron, OH: Today, Tom Zawistowski, President of the TEA Party affiliated We the People Convention and Executive Director of the Portage County TEA Party, called on Ohio Governor Mike DeWine and Ohio Health Director Dr. Amy Acton, to begin immediately publishing daily Ohio death statistics from Suicides, OPIOID/Drug abuse, Alcohol Related Deaths, and deaths from the regular flu - alongside deaths from the coronavirus. Sighting indisputable evidence that the Governor's radical actions, such as shutting down the majority of businesses in Ohio, putting as many as 1,793,472 Ohioans out of work, and ordering 10,000,000 Ohioans to stay in their homes for 30 days, results in significant deaths from these other sources which must be part of the equation when deciding what we do as citizens about the coronavirus.

Zawistowski said,"While all Ohioans, including me, are willing to take important steps and precautions to minimize the deaths caused by the coronavirus in our state, Governor DeWine and Dr. Acton have been negligent in providing citizens with the full "cost" to us, in both lives and dollars, from their drastic actions to prevent the spread of the virus. It is our understanding that the suicide rates, opioid/drug abuse deaths, and deaths from alcohol-related causes are on the increase in Ohio since the Governor's drastic actions were imposed in March and that they greatly exceed the 102 deaths caused by the coronavirus in eight weeks of the shutdown. It is literally medical malpractice by Dr. Acton to be recommending these single focused societal restrictions without giving ANY medical consideration to the well know psychological and sociological effect she is intentionally causing and the inevitable resulting injury and death that they will cause millions of Ohians! The Governor must publish these statistics alongside the coronavirus statistics everyday. We the people have the right to know the deaths being caused by the Governor's efforts to save some lives while killing other Ohioans in the process."

Zawistowski concluded, "It is both immoral and unconscionable that Governor DeWine has NEVER announced how many businesses he chose to close, or how many peoples' jobs he has taken away, or how much pay those Ohioans have lost because of his misguided actions. It is even more immoral to hide the fact that large numbers of Ohioans are now dying because of his actions. The MAJORITY of Ohioans' lives are not even being considered when the Governor takes actions that are singularly focused on just "saving lives" from the coronavirus. Clearly the Governor has forgotten that his job is to protect the lives of ALL Ohioans and not to decide whose life is worth more than someone else's life."

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