Over 25% of teenagers suffer from mental disorders caused by lockdowns

A study from the UK’s National Health Services has found that one in four teenagers 17-19 are likely to suffer from a mental disorder after lockdowns sparked a surge in cases. The number has skyrocketed from 17.4% per year to 25.7%. 

According to The Telegraph, the study also found that one in five children between 11-16 is likely to have a mental disorder, split between 18% of boys and 22% of girls. 

A study by Johns Hopkins University in January showed that lockdowns not only did not have any effect on mortality rates but proved to have severe negative consequences.  

“While this meta-analysis concludes that lockdowns have had little to no public health effects, they have imposed enormous economic and social costs where they have been adopted,” states the study. “In consequence, lockdown policies are ill-founded and should be rejected as a pandemic policy instrument.”  

Another study by Israel's largest HMO Clalit Health Services found that COVID-19 lockdowns had a devastating psychiatric impact on Israelis. 

The study reviewed 771,636 medical files of residents of Jerusalem and central Israel. It found that during the lockdown periods there was a 60% increase in patients suffering from psychiatric disorders compared with 2019.  

It also found a 14% increase in patients with cardiovascular diseases, an 8% increase in obese patients, a 7% increase in smoking patients, and a 6% increase in patients with high blood pressure.  

The study came after a March report by Ha’aretz which warns of a “psychiatric pandemic” due to the harsh psychiatric impact of lockdowns and quarantines, particularly on children and adolescents.  

“There is an increase in suicidal ideation, and while there is no clear indication of actual suicides, there is an evident increase in suicidal ideation, intention or behavior,” Psychologist Yaakov Ophir told Ha’aretz.  

Ophir, who is a research associate at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, said that since children are not affected by COVID-19, they should not have to be isolated. 

Lockdowns are said to be the brainchild of Dr. Ashish Jha, MD, MPH, who received widespread media attention in March 2020 for calling for a “national quarantine".   

Jha is also credited as being partially responsible for the “two weeks to flatten the curve” strategy.  

In April 2020 Jha said the U.S. didn’t lock down fast enough.  

The mainstream media anointed Jha as the COVID “expert” and showered him with attention, despite Jha being neither a virologist, vaccinologist nor immunologist. 

But despite his love for lockdowns, Jha maintained that the Black Lives Matter protests and gatherings in 2020 were justified because racism carries with it “a serious risk and grave public health cost."   

Biden rewarded Jha earlier this year by appointing him the White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator. 

Lockdowns also had the influential support of another Biden official, US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, despite Murthy’s reputation as a mental health expert specializing in loneliness. 

“It turns out people who struggle with loneliness have a higher risk of heart disease and premature death, of depression and anxiety, dementia, and a host of other conditions,” Murthy said on the Quarantine Tapes podcast in November 2020. “All of this to say that loneliness is more than a bad feeling. It’s something that has a profound impact on our health, our performance, and our sense of fulfillment.” 

“[L]oneliness is a natural signal that all of us experience at some point in our lives, and it’s a natural signal like hunger or thirst that crops up in our body when we are lacking something we need for survival. And in this case, that is social connection,” he added. 

But when it came to lockdowns, Murthy not only tried to justify them, but believed it was up to the government to “increase or decrease” lockdowns, like a dial. 

“[T]he word lockdown itself is a bit of a misnomer,” said the surgeon general. “When we locked down, so to speak, in the spring, we didn't say, just stay in your house and don't go anywhere. We still allowed and, in fact, recognized it was important for people to be able to go to the grocery store, to go to hospitals if they needed to.” 

In January, Murthy refused to recommend that schools open for in-person learning.