From The Ramparts

The COVID Lockdowns Caused Massive Trauma and Disruption

                                         The COVID Lockdowns Caused Massive Trauma and Disruption

Junious Ricardo Stanton

            “Using other methods, several studies have also found little health benefit of closing schools or businesses. Several studies find low COVID-19 transmission rates in schools. Herby, Jonung, and Hanke’s (2022) metaanalysis finds that ‘lockdowns in Europe and the United States only reduced COVID-19 mortality by 0.2% on average.’ Mulligan (2021b) finds that in-person workplaces were often safer, in terms of COVID transmission per person per hour, than households were due to the additional prevention efforts made in workplaces. Several other studies have found that efforts to reduce COVID mortality had costly unintended consequences.” A Final Report on the States’ Response to COVID-19 National Bureau of Economic Research https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w29928/w29928.pdf

            It should be crystal clear by now that the polices put into place by most nations’ and countries’ local governments rather than mitigating the spread of the so called novel Coronavirus, had horrific consequences that will reverberate for years to come. On every level public health, business, education, public safety you name it, the over reaction, the societal lockdowns have had deleterious implications for society as a whole. These policies in retrospect were boneheaded unwise clearly not based on scientific data or precedent and in many cases was far worse than the disease they purported to remedy. For example on the psychological level mental health professionals are reporting a quantum increase in pandemic related trauma. “Some mental health care advocates believe the general population may be suffering from various levels of vicarious traumatization, although strictly speaking this would not qualify for PTSD’s Criterion A for trauma exposure. Along these lines, in August 2020 the CDC published results of a large US web-based survey of more than 5000 adults (Table),10 in which 40.9% endorsed at least 1 adverse mental or behavioral health problem related to the pandemic. Symptoms of a trauma- and stressor-related disorder were reported by 26.3%, symptoms of anxiety or depression by 30.9%, substance use to cope by 13.3%, and serious consideration of suicide in the prior days by 10.7%. Suicidal ideation was significantly higher for younger respondents aged 18 to 24 years (25.5%), minority groups (Hispanic individuals, 18.6%; Black individuals, 15.1%), nonpaid caregivers for adults (30.7%), and essential workers (21.7%). The authors stressed the need to identify at-risk individuals to develop policies to address health inequities, and to increase resources for identifying mental health problems and offering new treatment options, including telehealth treatments.” Post COVID Stress Disorder: Another Emerging  Consequence of the Global Pandemic Phebe Tucker, MD, Christopher S. Czapla, MD https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/post-covid-stress-disorder-emerging-consequence-global-pandemic

            The impact of the decision to shut down whole economies, keep people socially isolated, ceasing community activities such as public religious services, weddings, funerals, closing businesses and schools had a devastating affect on society. “As a massive public health campaign was launched aimed at slowing the spread of the COVID-19 virus, scholars have outlined social and behavioral evidence that help shape policies aimed at influencing human behavior such as social distancing, staying at home, and hand washing (Bavel et al., 2020). Many countries have taken lockdown measures to enforce this behavior (Ren, 2020). At the same time, it now becomes clear that many of the measures taken, are causing an immense humanitarian disaster and the cure seems to be much worse than the disease (Rojas et al., 2020; Zhang et al., 2020). The myopic attendance to Covid-19/SARS-CoV-2¹ and disease control, has led to many consequences that affect people’s mental and physical health and safety (Holmes et al., 2020). For instance, early on in the crisis it was already estimated that at least 100 million people will die from hunger due to the lockdowns (Zetzsche, 2020), and as the lockdowns continue or even renewed in the upcoming times, the costs in terms the socio economics could be very high. Several authors have commented on the harms of non-evidence-based measures that many countries have taken, on the basis of failed predictions on the severity of the problem.” For The Greater Good? The Devastating Ripple Effects of the COVID Crisis Michaéla C. Schippers  https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.577740/full

            We are seeing that the lockdowns severely set back students in all phases of socialization and learning. “School closures may ultimately prove to be the most costly policy decision of the pandemic era in both economic and mortality terms. One study found that school closures at the end of the previous 2019-2020 school year are associated with 13.8 million years of life lost. An NIH analysis found that life expectancy for high school graduates is 4 to 6 years longer than high school dropouts. The OECD estimates that learning losses from pandemic era school closures could cause a 3% decline in lifetime earnings, and that a loss of just one third of a year of learning has a long-term economic impact of $14 trillion. Unlike mortality or economic outcomes, closing public schools was entirely under the control of policymakers. Almost all private schools were open.” A Final Report On The States Response To COVID-19 Phil Kerpen Stephen Moore Casey B. Mulligan

https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w29928/w29928.pdf  

            Studies show the lockdowns had a deleterious effect on student learning across the nation! “The COVID-19 pandemic spared no state or region as it caused historic learning setbacks for America’s children, erasing decades of academic progress and widening racial disparities, according to results of a national test that provide the sharpest look yet at the scale of the crisis. Across the country, math scores saw their largest decreases ever. Reading scores dropped to 1992 levels. Nearly four in 10 eighth graders failed to grasp basic math concepts. Not a single state saw a notable improvement in their average test scores, with some simply treading water at best. Those are the findings from the National Assessment of Educational Progress — known as the “nation’s report card” — which tested hundreds of thousands of fourth and eighth graders across the country this year. It was the first time the test had been given since 2019, and it’s seen as the first nationally representative study of the pandemic’s impact on learning.” Thanks Fauci: Test Scores Show Historic COVID Setbacks For Children Across All States https://www.technocracy.news/thanks-fauci-test-scores-show-historic-covid-setbacks-for-children-across-us/

It’s no secret; the facts are here for all to see if you are willing to wake up from your stupor, the lockdowns were a disaster! But you won’t hear the WHO, CDC, Fauci, Gates, Trump, Biden or any of the other miscreants responsible for this devastation offer any apologies, regrets nor will they be held accountable for the collective trauma and suffering they have caused humanity!

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posted by Junious Ricardo Stanton @ 4:45 PM