Some in the press are finally warming to what thousand of parents have said since the first round of coronavirus pandemic lockdowns:
Children are disproportionately harmed by all the panic and closures, worse than any other demographic.
var _bp = _bp||[]; _bp.push({ “div”: “Brid_41486269”, “obj”: {“id”:”27789″,”width”:”16″,”height”:”9″,”video”:”936317″} });
“For the past two years,” the New York Times’s David Leonhardt said this week in the paper’s Morning Newsletter, “Americans have accepted more harm to children in exchange for less harm to adults.”
Yes, we know. We’ve been saying this since at least spring 2020.
“I have long been aware that the pandemic was upending children’s lives,” Leonhardt writes. “But until I spent time pulling together data and reading reports, I did not understand just how alarming the situation had become.”
Those problems, he adds, include that “children fell far behind in school during the first year of the pandemic and have not caught up,” that “many children and teenagers are experiencing mental health problems,” that “suicide attempts have risen,” that “gun violence against children has increased,” that “many schools have still not returned to normal, worsening learning loss and social isolation,” and that “behavior problems have increased.”
Yes, we know. We predicted nearly all of this way back in the spring of 2020.
It’s stunning, really.
The COVID-19 pandemic may be the first major viral outbreak in recent history in which children face the least amount of risk. Yet children have shouldered the brunt of pandemic protocols set by adults. From school closures to being forced to wear masks in sweltering heat to forgoing basic, formative interactions, children are being treated as the most vulnerable among us, despite the fact they are generally safer than most everyone else.
Many parents have already pointed out this insanity. Many parents predicted exactly those things outlined by Leonhardt. Parents have yelled for months about the harm being done to their children.
Yet, for much of 2020 and 2021, anyone who suggested children were being abused by power-hungry pandemic fetishists was branded as an anti-science loon and even a “domestic terrorist.” Further, when faced with the reality of the harm being done to children, the go-to response from health officials and the “pajama class” media figures has been: “kids are resilient.”
Well, sure, but only up to a point. Everyone has a breaking point, and it seems the people charged with managing the pandemic have been intent on finding where the breaking point is for children.
It comes as something of a surprise, then, to see that the New York Times published a piece this week admitting what parents have said since early last year. It’s nice to see the paper publish materials openly agreeing with the parents, but one can’t help but ask: What took so long?
Parents have underscored the very issues outlined by Leonhardt. They’ve been loud and clear regarding the harm done to children.
So, what changed?
Wait, this doesn’t have anything to do with the looming 2022 midterm elections, does it?
