The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention acknowledged that there is a mental health crisis in adolescents due to the draconian protocols for coronavirus.
New survey data from Thursday shows that more than 44% of American teens experienced “persistent sadness or hopelessness”, while almost 20% seriously considered suicide and 9 percent attempted suicide in 2020.
Debra Houry, a deputy director of the CDC, stated that “these data echo a cry to help.” “The COVID-19 epidemic has caused traumatic stressors which have the potential of further affecting students’ mental well being.”
The survey results were collected from 7,705 ninth- to twelfth graders in a nationally representative sampling of public and private schools between January and June 2021, at the peak of coronavirus actions.
Although the virus is more common in young people than it is in adults, it was discovered early that the virus can be fatal to them. However, the CDC and other government officials pushed for the closing of schools and the masking of the disease. This contributed to mental health problems and learning loss.
The study revealed that over 37% of students had poor mental health when the survey was conducted. The proportion of girls reporting poor mental health was twice that of boys. However, it is not clear if this is because boys are reluctant to answer honestly.
Additionally, there was a sharp contrast in mental health between students that felt connected to others at school and those that did not. Nearly 79 per cent of students surveyed reported some form of virtual learning — something the CDC recommends — but just 46 percent felt connected with others at school.
Only 28.4 percent of students who felt connected to their school reported poor mental well-being, compared to 45.2 percent who didn’t feel connected and reported poor mental well-being.
Similar results were found for teens who were connected, where just over 35% felt “sadness and hopelessness” while teens who weren’t are connected felt it at almost 53 percent.
At 14 percent to 25.6 per cent, connected teens are more likely to consider suicide than non-connected peers. Teens who felt connected attempted suicide at a rate 5.8%, while their peers who were not connected did it at 11.9 percent.
The American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry wrote a joint statement in October 2021 declaring a “national emergency in child and adolescent psychological health”. However, they and CDC believe that the coronavirus and “the ongoing struggle to racial justice” are both contributing factors.
The American Academy of Pediatrics warned of a pandemic even before the above-mentioned groups declared a national emergency for America’s youth.
The American Academy of Pediatrics warned that children could be depressed, anxious, and even suicidal, by urging school officials to open schools in person learning in the middle of 2020.
Vivek Murthy, Biden’s Surgeon General, pointed out that “depression symptoms and anxiety symptoms for youth around world had doubled during this pandemic” and that clinical data also showed that “suicide attempts by adolescent guys were 4% higher than for girls in the same period in early 2019”.
Murthy’s study found that pandemic-related measures made it more difficult to identify signs of child abuse, mental illness, or other difficulties in children due to the “reduced in person interactions between children, friends, and professionals such teachers [and] school counsellors.”
The CDC acknowledged what many had suspected during the pandemic: Children have always been less at risk from the coronavirus. America’s youth would be devastated by draconian lockdowns and masking measures that would decimate their academic achievements, social development, and mental health.
