It’s been almost three and a half years since public health officials first urged the locking down of America in order to prevent the spread of a virus.
As talk of a possible repeat scenario grows louder, it might be prudent to stop and reflect on what we have gone through psychologically, socially, and emotionally, particularly our children.
When lockdowns were implemented, some prominent professionals questioned the policy.
For doing so, they were maligned and sometimes even censored.
Dr. Martin Kulldorff (Harvard), Dr. Sunetra Gupta (Oxford), and Dr. Jay Bhattacharya (Stanford) are three highly qualified epidemiologists, who at a pivotal point in history came together to publish a document.
The document, titled the "Great Barrington Declaration," made the case that lockdowns have a deleterious effect upon children.
Additionally, an argument was made that denying children the opportunity to attend school was particularly harmful.
The scholars were subsequently disparaged by public officials and certain media figures, as if there were an effort in place to avoid open debate of the document’s content.
In recent coverage of the "Twitter Files," journalist and former New York Times reporter Bari Weiss brought to light the story of Dr. Bhattacharya, whose social media accounts were systematically banned.
Evidently, the professor of health policy at Stanford University ended up becoming one of the victims of high-tech suppression.
Dr. Bhattacharya, who holds both an M.D. and Ph.D. from Stanford, had published 135 articles in top peer-reviewed scientific journals of medicine, economics, health policy, epidemiology, statistics, law, and public health.
The doctor was treated outrageously for having countered the lockdown narrative.
Weiss documented how Dr. Bhattacharya was attacked and censored for asserting that the lockdowns could cause harm to children.
During a podcast, Dr. Bhattacharya also spoke of the costs to the children as a result of the lockdowns and school closings, calling them "devastating" and "almost unimaginable."
He pointed to Sweden as a compelling case study, stating, "Sweden did better than most countries, certainly better than the United States, despite not putting in place school closures and a whole host of lockdown-related policies."
He revealed that shortly after the Great Barrington Declaration had gained attention he received hate mail and death threats.
Time, of course, has passed, and although Dr. Bhattacharya's ideas were once rejected and hidden away, data have been gathered indicating he was correct.
Here’s a look at some additional studies:
—Nine researchers published a systematic review, using multiple databases from December 2019 to December 2020. The review showed that the impact of the pandemic on the mental health of children and adolescents was multifaceted and substantial.
—Survey studies indicated that anxiety, depression, loneliness, stress, fear, tension, anger, fatigue, confusion, and worry were the most-observed symptoms of children and adolescents during this time period.
—Another recent study from the University of Virginia Health showed that suicide attempts among children (via overdose) rose sharply during the pandemic.
The rate of suicide attempts (via poisoning) reported to U.S. poison centers among children and adolescents ages 10 to 19 showed an increase of 30 percent during the year 2021, when compared to 2019.
2021 was the first full year of the pandemic and its attendant lockdowns. The rate of suspected attempts by intentional poisoning among children ages 10 to 12 showed an increase of 73 percent, when compared to the year 2019.
"These findings suggest that the mental health of children and adolescents might still be affected by the pandemic raising concerns about long-term consequences, especially given that previous attempted suicide has been found to be the strongest predictor of subsequent death by suicide," the researchers wrote.
—Boston Children's Hospital epidemiologist Dr. Mainuna Majumder and colleagues assembled data from 14 states on suicides in 2020. Findings indicated that 10 to 19-year-olds accounted for a more significant share of suicides in 2020 than in prior years, with percentages going from 5.9 in 2015 through 2019 to 6.5 in 2020 (a statistically significant increase of 10 percent).
The study appears in JAMA Pediatrics.
The two-year study period (spanning 2019 through 2020) looked at approximately 3,800 children, ages 4 to 18, who were admitted to inpatient units for mental health-related reasons.
In the year prior to the pandemic, 50% of admitted patients had suicidal ideation or had made suicidal attempts. This figure jumped to 60% during the first year of the pandemic.
Proof of collateral damage to children due to lockdowns continues to surface.
Still, many public health officials and politicians seem to be urging a revival of the lockdown policy.
In retrospect, the doctors and other professionals who were disparaged and/or censored were accurate in their assessments of the negative effects of lockdowns on school-aged children.
Millions of young people could have been spared the negative psychological, social, and emotional ramifications of the lockdowns.
Heaven forbid that we have a repeat of this history.
James Hirsen, J.D., M.A., in media psychology, is a New York Times best-selling author, media analyst, and law professor. Visit Newsmax TV Hollywood. Read James Hirsen's Reports — More Here.