Day: 4 March 2021

by Emma Hine As a mother, one of the first thoughts that entered my exhausted, post-labour brain, as I gazed down at my beautiful newborn baby, was, “I would die for you!” For a father, I believe that moment is often when the infant reaches out and grabs his nose or finger for the first time and fills him with that same primal, instinctive urge to protect his child, no matter what. As the baby grows to childhood and then to stroppy teen, no matter what other daily emotions might sometimes cloud our judgement, that primitive, protective instinct never goes away. We would die for our children. Yet here we are, one year into a pandemic, which data shows is disproportionately biased away from children (in the UK, 11 mortalities below age 15, a figure comparable to an average flu year), and we are asking our children to protect us, at huge cost to their emotional and mental well-being. “Children are resilient!” I hear, time and time again. Yes, they are. But why should they have to be? Daily new cases in the UK are now at a comparable level to the initial wave of the pandemic – 6385 daily recorded cases on March 3rd 2021 vs. 6201 (highest daily recorded case number between March-May 2020) but with considerably lower ...

by Patrick Dewals Cartoon by Peter Poplaski Few phenomena have had a profound impact on a global level as quickly as the current corona outbreak. In no time, human life has been completely reorganised. I asked Mattias Desmet, Psychotherapist and Professor of Clinical Psychology at Ghent University, how this is possible, what the consequences are, and what we can expect in the future. Almost a year after the start of the corona crisis, how is the mental health of the population? For the time being, there are few figures that show the evolution of possible indicators such as the intake of antidepressants and anxiolytics or the number of suicides. But it is especially important to place mental well-being in the corona crisis in its historical continuity. Mental health had been declining for decades. There has long been a steady increase in the number of depression and anxiety problems and the number of suicides. And in recent years there has been an enormous growth in absenteeism due to psychological suffering and burnouts. The year before the corona outbreak, you could feel this malaise growing exponentially. This gave the impression that society was heading for a tipping point where a psychological ‘reorganization’ of the social system was imperative. This is happening with corona. Initially, we noticed people with little knowledge of the ...

Today's update on Lockdown Sceptics is here. Hear how the Left flunked the lockdown challenge, an update on HCQ and ivermectin, and tips for writing to your child's school about masks and Covid tests.