The virus kills some people directly, by infecting them, and others indirectly, by, for example, prompting people to delay going to the hospital for other conditions and thus needlessly dying, or by increasing suicides as a result of depression due to job loss or social isolation. But the pandemic also saved some lives too. For instance, motor-vehicle fatalities fell during the winter and spring of 2020, as fewer people were on the road; there were fewer deaths due to complications from noncritical medical procedures, as hospitals had canceled elective procedures; fewer babies were born
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