Just the Latest Evidence Lockdowns Were A Disaster
Lockdowns implemented by the government to curb the spread of COVID-19 have taken a toll on the emotional, mental, and educational well-being of American youth. A recent study conducted by Boston University, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, indicates that gun-related fatalities and assaults involving minors rose significantly in four major liberal cities from March 2020 to December 2021.
According to the study, during the first two years of the pandemic, gun-related fatalities and non-fatal assaults among minors rose from 30 to around 62 per 100,000 in Philadelphia alone. Similar increases were observed in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Black children were disproportionately affected, with the study revealing that they were 100 times more likely to be shot than their white peers during this period. Philadelphia was found to have experienced the highest increase in gun violence among the cities studied, with the actual fatality rate presumably higher than the limited findings suggest.
This latest revelation adds to a growing body of evidence proving how harmful the pandemic has been for children. Late last year, a study by Stanford University found that teenager’s brains underwent accelerated ageing during the pandemic lockdown. Researchers discovered that the brains of 16-year-olds assessed after the beginning of pandemic restrictions appeared several years older than those of their peers assessed before the pandemic. The study also revealed that these individuals were more likely to have severe mental health issues.
Other reports point to the devastating impact of online learning on children’s academic performance in blue states – where children had less time away from in-person instruction – vis-à-vis their counterparts in red states who were better placed to continue with in-person learning throughout the pandemic.
Many conservatives warned of the adverse effects that lockdowns would have on American children as early as spring 2020, but were accused of not “caring” about the youth. Meanwhile, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicates that despite accounting for 23% of the US population, children have contributed to just 0.1% of COVID-related deaths.
Given the abundance of evidence highlighting the damaging effects of the pandemic and the lockdowns on young people, can any leftist seriously argue that the cure was not worse than the disease?
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