Coronavirus: Mental Health Crisis?

The Hill (Apr 13) has an article up about mental health problems associated with COVID-19. The author has an interesting comparison to Hurricane Katrina: 

Five months after Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast, researchers found that 17 percent of New Orleans residents reported serious mental health problems afterward, compared to 1 percent to 3 percent of the American population.

The article also looks into a study of Americans who might be dealing with psychiatric issues.

. . . A recent study by Oxford researchers in Lancet Psychiatry examined 70 million U.S. health records and found that almost one in five Americans who have had COVID-19 were later diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder such as anxiety, depression or insomnia, and even psychosis.

The signs are clear that something must be done to address this long tail of pandemic effects. But our government does not seem aware of or prepared for these lingering impacts. Investing in front-line mental health care should be part of how we modernize infrastructure.

Is Oxford saying that 14 million Americans are suffering from psychiatric disorders due to their COVID-19 health issues? That just doesn't seem right because at the time of that study, which had to be before April 13, there were no where near 70 million official COVD-19 cases. On the other hand, the Katrina comment makes one think: is it possible that a lot of the long haul issues are more of a mental issue? In a UK study, it was estimated that 1.094 million people in the UK had health issues related to COVID-19. Is it possible that a lot of these estimates of long-haulers will simply end once the pandemic drifts into a distant memory? One can only hope, because that one in five Americans would be in the millions (even if that 14 million doesn't make sense) and that is just those who suffer from psychiatric disorders and not those who are dealing with health issues related to kidney and lung problems.