In March 2020, Covid-19 lockdowns and school closures swept across the country. While these measures may have been well-intentioned, they did far more harm than good, especially for children and adolescents.

Lockdown advocates might argue that they closed schools to protect the health and safety of students. This is supported by the exponentially higher case rates the country is experiencing now compared to the period during lockdowns. However, a deeper look at the statistics reveals that, despite high case rates, school-age kids are in virtually no danger from Covid-19. According to the CDC, from Jan. 1, 2020, to Dec. 25, 2021, 678 people age 0-17 in the U.S. died of Covid-19. This is just 0.083 percent of all Covid deaths in the United States. With 6,483,703 Covid cases among that age group, this means there is a 0.0104 percent death rate for those under 18. That number is so low that it can be considered a statistical anomaly. With this information, it seems unnecessary for schools to have ever been locked down.

Another aspect of lockdowns that many people on both sides focused on was mental health and suicide. Many feared that lockdowns would have a devastating effect on people’s mental health and would increase suicide deaths. Lockdown advocates would argue that the statistics don’t show this. For example, the national suicide rate for people of all ages decreased by three percent from 2019 to 2020. However, for school-age children, it was the opposite. The suicide rate among adolescents aged 15-19 increased from 10.5 deaths per 100,000 in 2019 to 11.1 deaths per 100,000 in 2020. Compared with spring 2019, the rate of hospital visits for suspected suicide attempts was 2.4 times as high in spring 2020, which was the height of pandemic lockdowns. U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy recently stated, “I’m so concerned about our children because there is an epidemic, if you will, of mental health challenges that they’ve been facing, and it’s partly because of the pandemic.” It’s clear that these unnecessary lockdowns have had a devastating effect on the youth of our country. Local and state governments across the country should realize that lockdowns failed and should never be implemented again.

Sources

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7024e1.htm?s_cid=mm7024e1_w#suggestedcitation

https://www.americashealthrankings.org/explore/health-of-women-and-children/measure/teen_suicide/state/ALL?edition-year=2020

https://data.cdc.gov/NCHS/Provisional-COVID-19-Deaths-by-Sex-and-Age/9bhg-hcku

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10345597/Surgeon-General-Vivek-Murthy-says-COVID-pandemic-triggered-alarming-spike-child-suicides.html

https://afsp.org/suicide-statistics/

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1254271/us-total-number-of-covid-cases-by-age-group/