As damning evidence continues to emerge of the harms of lockdown for children, Joanna Williams in the Telegraph highlights recent research finding rising numbers with eating disorders and social anxiety, and who are self-harming and dropping out of school. Here’s an excerpt.
The fact our young suffered the effects of lockdown in many more ways than we could ever have predicted has left parents, schools and the healthcare system reeling in the virus’s wake. But today, little is being done.
Over the pandemic’s course, the number of youngsters seeking help for mental health problems soared, jumping from an estimated 12.1% of children in 2017 to 17.8% in 2022. The youngest children – those aged between seven and 10 – saw the biggest increase. But adolescent mental health issues have also become more prevalent, with new research this week showing that lockdowns fuelled a staggering 42% rise in eating disorders among teenagers – the sharpest rise being in girls aged between 13 and 16 – and led to a similar increase in incidents of self-harm.
The lead author of the latest study suggests that social isolation, anxiety, disruption in education and over-exposure to negative social media influences left many children feeling they had lost control over their lives, and that this could have contributed to the development of eating disorders. Hospital admissions because of eating disorders had their sharpest annual increase in the year after the pandemic, rising from 5,950 among under-18s to 7,767.
School closures had a devastating impact on education. Pupils starting in reception in 2019 spent, on average, 85 days out of class. Some, especially those placed in ‘bubbles’ where entire year groups were sent home if just one pupil tested positive, missed far more. As a result, the proportion of pupils meeting literacy and numeracy benchmarks at the end of primary school fell from 65% in 2018-19 to 59% in 2021-22.
Some children suffered far more from school closures than others. While some received a full timetable of interactive online lessons, many did not.
The difference in performance between those from disadvantaged backgrounds and their better-off classmates widened significantly between 2020 and 2022 – reversing a trend that had seen the educational attainment gap between rich and poor shrink over the previous decade.
Once schools reopened, many thousands of children failed to turn up. Last year, pupil absences stood at double pre-pandemic levels, with around 1.5 million children missing over 10% of timetabled classes. The number of severely absent children has risen by more than 50% in a year. Truancy is far higher in more socially deprived communities.
Despite this damning weight of evidence, the national Covid Inquiry has – so far – shown little interest in acknowledging lockdown’s impact on children. Or interrogating why this situation was allowed to occur.
The week former chancellor George Osborne revealed what was really at stake with scattergun lockdown policies when he gave evidence at the inquiry earlier this week. Governments have to weigh “life expectancy” against sacrificing “the educational opportunities of an eight year-old” he declared. While we are yet to learn exactly how the “weighing up” took place, the conclusion of such deliberations has long been clear.
Worth reading in full.
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It’s unquestionably damaged children and the consequences of the trauma have yet to be played out. Wait until the younger children hit puberty and really start to rebel! They’ll likely be lacking in the social constraints society has placed on the rest of us!
I’m in my late 40s, have become – through circumstances – a ‘laptop class’ worker-from-home (having previously had a very busy life bustling from company to company, hopping on trains to places all over the country!) My life has changed utterly and I’m a almost a recluse now, with the social highlight of my week being a cup of coffee in the Tesco cafeteria after picking up my click & collect shopping!
When I think of how powerless I felt as an adult during the lockdowns, stuck at home, cultivating my garden, Candide-style, in the provinces while the (increasingly paramilitary) police were beating up anti-lockdown protestors, while the free world burned, imagine how kids were seething even more.
I know I went to some pretty ‘dark places’ in that time, but I had years of reading, a love of music and other things to anchor me in the storm. Youngsters without that… they’re going to play up hell when they get older and I can’t say I’ll blame them.
I agree.
I agree, they are going to massively resent the mental torture that was inflicted on them.
You can change the way your life is now, if you want to Dom. I had many very difficult years bringing up 2 sons on my own after their father left, but I worked out a plan to get through them and carried it out. I’m now in a very happy place and have a lovely relationship with my two sons. Good luck.
I care.
Me too.
I thought the Great Leaders of the West were concerned about youth and future generations.
Silly me.
I am 66, and didn’t support any of it – I genuinely don’t give a toss.
It is apparent that even commentators who are raising these issues, albeit belatedly, are still refusing to acknowledge that these outcomes would have been predicted by those pushing the Lockdown programmes, principally the Davos Deviants, but ably abetted in this country by Bozo and his bunch of merry gangsters.
A generation of psychologically damaged children is just what is required. The aim is confused and frightened adults – much easier to control as engineered crisis follows engineered crisis. Adults still able to think and act for themselves are definitely NOT what uncle Klaus and Dr Billy require in their New World Order.
Confused and frightened adults that need looking after, a bit like pets? Working pets?
100, 150 years ago every village managed just fine, more or less autonomous, with little or no government interference. In the event of some catastrophe, they would have rebuilt quickly, as they had all the skills in the community… blacksmith, stonemason, carpenters, farmers, etc. Decentralised rural communities in the modern age would be highly sustainable, but I guess that is not what is wanted by whoever is attempting to take over the country, because no-one would be taking a tythe from our labour.
Correct. It’s why they want to herd everyone into 15 minute ghettos ….. so they are entirely dependent on “the State” for everything. Misbehave and your “privileges” will be withdrawn.
Dropping out of school may not be a problem per se.
Most people are over schooled. And given that our schools have become primarily centres of left wing indocrination, dropping out and getting a job might be the best thing many can do.
Yes, it would be interesting to see what these dropouts are doing–working or hanging out on the street corner (or nowadays sitting on the couch playing video games). I run into geezer tradesmen complaining they can’t find young people to work their trades. One young man told me while he was working as a waiter the owner of an HVAC company asked him to come and learn the heating and air conditioning business. The young man said he was having a hard time passing the required safety tests, so his poor schooling may shorten his HVAC career. American students graduate high school at 18, so obviously much of the teen years are wasted (or at least not directed toward reading and math).
I think it is part of the human condition to want to figure out how stuff works, to bring it under your control. A generation and a bit ago, adults fixed stuff…dad tinkering with the car, fixing the plumbing, mum doing sewing…because no-one could afford to pay someone. So children learnt how to do stuff, like soldering a pipe, or mending a bike, making your own dresses, woodcarving, airfix models etc etc. For boys it was a rite of passage, blagging to your mates that you rebuilt an engine over the weekend. Getting your dad to let you use the electric drill was mega!
Unfortunately the status gained by acquisition of useful practical skills now seems to have been replaced by the gaining of high scores on computer games. So perhaps that is why youngsters struggle with trade skills?
“former chancellor George Osborne revealed what was really at stake with scattergun lockdown policies”
Oooh how enlightened of George with a privileged stage at the inquiry to show his 20-20 rear view vision. Where was he when the rest of us saw that media controls, mask mandates, social distancing and “only cure is the jab” were the first steps to all of these pernicious policies. George was already on the road of compliance.
Nobody is discussing the real culprits, the teaching unions. Using the specious arguments that they were at risk of catching a cold from their pupils they bullied the government into closing down schools. And now the bar stewards have the gall to strike for more money, having spent a long time being rewarded for doing nothing
Lockdown damage masks covid jab damage
Sundays 10.30am to 11.30am
Elms Field
near play area
Wokingham RG40 2FE
Thus far the Covid enquiry has shown little interest. That is because the enquiry is nothing to do with the negative effects on the population, it is an exercise in whitewashing and clearing the blame on politicians and their “advisors”. That is all its for. Nothing the people in Westminster do is about the people, they don’t care about us except the day they need our vote such that they can keep their noses and trotters in trough, once they have that they can carry on looking after themselves and their friends until the next time our cross is needed on a piece of paper,
All this Rhetoric and useless waffle accompanied by the whitewash sham of a “national covid inquiry”.
It’s simple…HEADS NEED TO ROLL!
Thanks to the Daily Sceptic I read more about the effects of Covid policies in the UK than anywhere else, including my own country of Germany. I’d say the UK is also quite a data-rich country. If 85 days of closed schools are associated with such a strong impact, we can only imagine what happened in Uganda, Bangladesh, or the Philippines where schools were closed for about 2 years!
The same headline “no one seems to care” applies to the vaccine damaged and current excess death situation. Children and adults have been traumatised and brainwashed by those who want to control us. We must resist in any way we can and encourage those who’ve succumbed to find the courage to be a normal human being and make their way in life as best they can, questioning those who want to suppress their natural endeavour, instincts and curiousity.
“The fact our young suffered the effects of lockdown in many more ways than we could ever have predicted…” Wrong. I, and many others, predicted it but the Lockdowners didn’t want to listen. Unfortunately many people, young and old, continue to suffer the consequences.
True. There were many speaking out and we shouldn’t go along with these mealy-mouthed statements about how we didn’t know. What she means is they turned a blind eye, possibly because they were so frightened and couldn’t be bothered to challenge the lies and nonsense they were being told about viruses, immunity, susceptibility, etc.
Dr David Martin provides a succinct preliminary conclusion to the Covid Inquiry……NOT
https://t.me/Dr_DavidMartinWorld/1657