As we get closer to the two-year mark of “two weeks to flatten the curve,” it is evident that the panic-driven policies issued by “experts” and promoted by the establishment media have a wide array of very damaging, unintended consequences.
One group that has been collateral damage in this “war on COVID” has been school-age children. Teachers demanded school lockdown and remote learning. They were fearful of contracting a virus that we know to have the most significant health impacts on the elderly, obese, and those with comorbidities (with meager hospitalization rates and death in those who do not).
Moreover, there is no evidence that classrooms were a hotbed of transmission or such action stopped the spread of COVID. As evidence, here is a recently published study involving schoolchildren in Japan.
We do not find any evidence that school closures in Japan helped to reduce the spread of COVID-19 in spring 2020. Among our pairs of similar municipalities, municipalities that closed their schools had very similar levels of COVID-19 as those that kept their schools open. In other words, municipalities that shut down their schools imposed additional costs on their residents without receiving the supposed benefit of limiting the spread of the pandemic.To further confirm our main finding, we show that our results hold across a host of alternative approaches to modeling the relationship between school closures and COVID-19 cases. These robustness checks all point to the same conclusion: There is no evidence that shutting down schools had a significant impact on limiting the spread of COVID-19.
Now the media is beginning to assess the damage inflicted upon the children who have been unwilling subjects in pandemic response experimentation. To start with, The New York Times reviewed the experiences of Harrison Bailey III, principal of Liberty High School in Bethlehem, PA.
Nationally, the high school-age group has reported some of the most alarming mental health declines, evidenced by depression and suicide attempts. Adolescents have failed classes critical to their futures at higher rates than in previous years, affecting graduations and college prospects. And as elected leaders and public health officials scrambled to bring students back to school last winter and spring, the focus on having the youngest and most vulnerable students return to in-person instruction left many high school students to languish, with large numbers missing most or all of the 2020-21 academic year.And now schools like Liberty must brace for an Omicron-fueled wave of new infections, adding still more uncertainty.On a recent day, as Dr. Bailey stood in one of Liberty’s busiest hallways — nicknamed the Hall of Fame for its frequent disruptive episodes — he described how the resignation and indignation that students brought back to school this year was palpable.“It’s like there’s a bomb somewhere,” he said. “And you’re just hoping no one lights a match.”
Yes, a bomb of arrogance was detonated when the “experts” of the Coronavirus Response Team, Teachers Unions, and progressive politicians pursued lockdown policies, then continued to double down on them when they failed.
Humans are social creatures. Youth is when they learn to interact with others, make life-long friends, and learn coping skills when social challenges arrive. Such activities cannot be conducted via Zoom but must be done in person.
The risks associated with COVID related to their exposures did not warrant what essentially has been a 2-year pause in critical development time….much less the 2-year loss in learning that can only put this country further behind in terms of future success and discoveries.
The “experts” and the teachers who pressed for lockdowns are responsible for implementing policies that have arguably resulted in what I will term “COVID-policy related deaths,” as exemplified by a recent op-ed in the Los Angeles Times from Dr. Sina Safahieh, child and adolescent psychiatrist.
The California Department of Health reported that the number of suicides among people age 18 and under rose in 2020. In Orange County as of September, 11 young people took their lives, far surpassing the four-year average of eight suicides.COVID-19 has precipitated a mental health crisis, fueled by social isolation, collapse of routines and structure, and increased uncertainty about the future. All of us, whether young or old, have developed disease fatigue, which is exacerbated by continuous contact and exposure to potential triggers without respite.
Inevitably, this pandemic will end. When the damage is assessed, those who pressed for the closure of schools (including those in the media) should face a very harsh set of consequences themselves.
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