Posted on by Californiacontrarian

Overkill !

In April, 2020 Devin Nunes (R,CA) said the following”

“The schools were just canceled out here in California, which is way overkill. It’s possible kids could have gone back to school in two weeks, four weeks.” Back then I agreed with Nunes … see my blog of 6/18/2020.

Not surprising,”those that knew best” as well as the Main Stream Media (MSM) scoffed at him. From the L.A. Times at that time: “Nunes’ comments on Fox News conflict with urgent guidance from local, state and federal governments as well as from medical experts who say the restrictions on movement are essential to slowing the virus and preventing many deaths.”

Now here we are two years after Nunes expressed his opinion on school closures and was then promptly ridiculed by our astute governor, Gavin Newsom, who said, “I’ve not sourced [Nunes] for advice on pretty much any issue …” Perhaps someone from the MSM should now ask Governor Newsom if he should have paid more attention to Rep. Nunes back in April, 2020. Since that would never happen, perhaps we could look at some of the consequences on teenagers of what turned out to be prolonged school closures.

Andrea Hussong, professor and associate director of clinical psychology and neuroscience for the University of North Carolina, said in a November interview that teen mental health has been deteriorating since as early as the first few months of the pandemic’s onset, with severity varying on the individual teen.

One thing is for certain, according to Hussong.

“Youth in the United States are reporting that the biggest impact of the pandemic is on their mental health,” she said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a new report on April 1 based on a survey on adolescent behaviors during COVID-19. It found more than one in three high school students felt sad or hopeless during the pandemic. One in three students also reported using alcohol and other drugs more during the pandemic.

“I’m seeing the effects of these government shutdowns, lockdowns, closures, social distancing measures, quarantines, masking, shutting down schools, just now coming to fruition,” Dr. Mark McDonald, a child and adolescent psychiatrist.

Studies confirm McDonald’s warning. A recent JAMA systematic review of 36 studies from 11 countries found that “school closures and social lockdowns during the first COVID-19 wave were associated with adverse mental health symptoms (such as distress and anxiety) and health behaviors (such as higher screen time and lower physical activity) among children and adolescents.”

“It’s just devastating,” McDonald said. “I have so many children in my practice who are unable to spend time with their friends at sleepovers because they can’t separate from their mothers. I have children who have punched through plate glass windows with their fists at age 8 out of frustration because they can’t go outside.”

And the beat goes on!  There are many more of like-minded opinions and studies concerning all of the harm that the past isolation and school closures are still causing. (If you are interested, see Epoch Health , 4/11/22 on the continuing adolescent consequences of suicides, drug use, and drug overdoses.)

From that same Epoch Health article:

“There’s no meme in the virtual universe that encompasses the kind of disappointment teens faced when their schools remained closed.”

So to me the question of the necessity of the prolonged school closures still remains. Were any lives saved by this drastic measure? … Possibly.

Did we trade the possible saving of some lives, mostly of older people, in exchange for a significant set of prolonged, continuing, and serious problems in adolescents? … Probably!

Was Devin Nunes right when he said that extended school closures was overkill, and likewise was Governor Newsom wrong with his churlish response? In my opinion a definite, “yes!”

4/15/22

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