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Medically Useless and Destructive Lockdowns

Part Two

By Gary F. Zeolla

This two-part article is continued from: Medically Useless and Destructive Lockdowns: Part One.

Drop in Academic Levels:

      Another destructive aspect of the lockdowns is the dramatic drop in the academic levels of our children:

      Student test scores saw precipitous declines in math and reading over the past two years, according to new data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, commonly known as the nation’s report card.

      The 2022 scores, which measure student proficiency in reading and math, are the first edition of the nation’s report to be released since COVID-19 pandemic policies forced schools nationwide to close their doors, in some cases up to a full year.

      The biggest score declines were in math, which the National Center for Education Statistics said in a press release was the biggest decline ever recorded. For fourth graders, math scores declined by 5 points to 236 from their 2019 number of 241, while eighth grade scores plummeted 8 points from 282 to 274.

      In reading, both fourth and eighth graders saw 3-point declines from 2019. Fourth grade scores fell from 220 to 217 and eighth grade scores from 263 to 260 (Washington Examiner. Nation’s report card).

      “These numbers prove that American parents’ concerns about their children’s education during the pandemic weren’t speculative – but in fact, perfectly valid,” said Nicole Neily, president of Parents Defending Education, a grassroots organization dedicated to shining a light on what kids are being taught in schools. “American students were the subject of a years-long social experiment that will impact our country’s economy for decades to come.”

      Neily said it is time to hold the “education bureaucrats, activists, and public health officials who mocked, shamed, and derided families accountable for their decisions.” …

      While every region of the country saw test scores slip and every state saw declines in at least one subject, Democrat-led areas experienced some of the worst scores (Newsmax. Who’s).

      The U.S. Department of Education and establishment media outlets have admitted to severe learning loss among students due to draconian and unnecessary coronavirus pandemic protocols that saw school closures, masking, and “virtual learning.” …

      Data collected shows that nine-year-olds lost ground in math for the first time since the data started being collected in the 1970s, and reading scores dropped by its most significant margin since 1990.

      Compared to the 2020 assessment, which was administered before pandemic protocols were put in place, the 2022 scores dropped seven points in math and five points in reading.

      Saying the U.S. is in an “education crisis,” according to CNN, Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona also said that the drop in scores can be attributed to not having “in-person learning.” …

      Declines in scores affected all regions of the country, as well as almost all racial groups and income levels — though, lower-income and minority groups suffered the largest losses as those schools were typically Democrat-run and were more likely to be locked down for longer periods of time.

      While black students lost 13 points in math, Hispanic students lost eight points and white students lost five points. Regional declines in math were nine points in the Midwest, eight points in the Northeast, seven points in the South, and five points in the West.

      For reading, black, white, and Hispanic students each dropped six points. Regional declines for reading were seven points in the Northeast, seven points in the Midwest, and six points in the South with no change in the West (Breitbart. Pandemic).

    Researchers say it could take the average elementary school student three years to reach the education level they would have been at without the pandemic. For older students, that recovery period could take much longer.

      In addition to having kids fall behind as they learned not from their classroom seats but from a home computer screen, studies also show that school closures had a negative impact on children’s physical and mental health.

      Several investigations concluded that kids’ anxiety and depression levels increased following the lockdowns. One U.K. study found that almost half of teenage girls and 6 in 10 teenage boys showed symptoms of anxiety and one in five of both sexes reported symptoms of depression (The 6 COVID).

      This learning loss could have lifelong economic consequences for those students so affected:

      Learning loss could shave $70,000 off the lifetime earnings of children who were in school during the pandemic, according to a new study by a Stanford economist.

      The sobering forecast is based on an analysis of the sharp declines in the scores of eighth-graders on national math tests taken between 2019 and 2022.

      If the learning losses aren’t recovered, K-12 students on average will grow into less educated, lower-skilled and less productive adults and will earn 5.6% less over the course of their lives than students educated just before the pandemic, said Eric A. Hanushek, a Stanford University economist who specializes in education. He said the losses could total $28 trillion over the rest of this century (Fox Business. Pandemic).

Mental Health Problems in Children:

      There was even an effect on the brains of adolescents and their mental health overall:

      According to the director of Stanford Neurodevelopment, children suffered during lockdowns in a way that researchers are not completely sure is temporary.  “Adolescents assessed after the pandemic shutdowns” were shown to have “more severe internalizing mental health problems,” as well as “more advanced brain age” says Professor Ian Gotlib.

      The “brain age” of pandemic-era children is comparable to the same accelerated changes that happen to the minds of children who experience elevated levels of stress or chronic adversity. Typically, this happens to children who suffer from “violence, neglect, family dysfunction, or a combination of multiple factors” (Blaze. Lockdowns).

    Meanwhile, other reports indicate that children in red states, who were more likely to have less time away from in-person instruction, are doing much better academically than their blue state counterparts, who were more likely to have online schooling during the pandemic (Daily Wire. Latest Evidence).

    However, children in lockdown states have experienced additional problems.

      According to the new data, in 2021, more than a third (37%) of high school students reported they experienced poor mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic, and 44% reported they persistently felt sad or hopeless during the past year. The new analyses also describe some of the severe challenges youth encountered during the pandemic.

·         More than half (55%) reported they experienced emotional abuse by a parent or other adult in the home, including swearing at, insulting, or putting down the student.

·         11% experienced physical abuse by a parent or other adult in the home, including hitting, beating, kicking, or physically hurting the student.

·         More than a quarter (29%) reported a parent or other adult in their home lost a job (CDC. New CDC data).

      Almost half of children had their emotional development harmed by lockdowns with parents reporting a dip in social and emotional skills manifested in being badly behaved or being easily scared, a new report claims….

      A major cause for these changes, the report suggested, was the damage caused to the labour market by lockdown restrictions, noting that the most obvious changes to children’s emotional skills were among those whose parents experienced “transition in the labour market”, or in other words lost their job or was furloughed. Those children whose parents were economically stable through Coronavirus were least impacted….

      The findings appear to mirror other findings, which have consistently stated that children were harmed by the enormous and repressive lockdowns created by governments in response to the 2019 novel Coronavirus. In Germany this year a study reported 73 per cent of children and young people “still feel stressed after the pandemic”Die Welt reported in Feburary, stating: “Learning problems, depression or eating disorders: The effects of the pandemic restrictions are massive for minors” (Breitbart. Lockdown Harmed).

      The saddest part is that locking down kids was completely unnecessary:

      Now, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention claims that “although children account for ~23% of the US population, they have accounted for ~0.1% of reported COVID-19 deaths” (Daily Wire. Latest Evidence).

Increase in Shootings:

      The government-imposed COVID lockdowns wreaked havoc on America’s youth emotionally, mentally, and educationally. Now, new data shows that child gun-related fatalities and assaults skyrocketed in four major liberal cities from March 2020 to December 2021.

      New data from Boston University published in the Journal of the American Medical Association shows that during the first two years of the pandemic, fatal and non-fatal gun assaults for minors increased from a rate of 30 per 100,000 to about 62 per 100,000 during the pandemic in Philadelphia alone. Meanwhile, the rates in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles also increased.

      Black children in particular bore the brunt of these tragedies (Daily Wire. Latest Evidence).

      I am not sure if it can be said for sure this increase in shootings was the result of the lockdowns. They could be due to the “Defund the police” movement that also occurred in 2020. Or it could be a combination of the two, which is why I am at least mentioning it. Or it could be for a reason I will mention after the next section that is related to the lockdowns.

Closures of Gyms and Other Places for Exercise:

      Twenty-five percent of U.S. health clubs and studios have closed permanently since the pandemic began, according to the National Health & Fitness Alliance, an industry group  (AP. Gyms).

      The nine-hole golf course [Brackenridge Heights Golf Course] opened for play in 1918. The country club was established in 1914. The Tomsons closed the clubhouse and restaurant in 2019, but the golf course remains open to the public on a seasonal basis, typically April through November….

      “The pandemic happened and we just couldn’t keep it open,” said Ted Tomson, 72. “We tried to make the golf course work and along came covid. And we just couldn’t keep it up.” …

      The club’s in-ground pool, once a popular summer swimming and social spot, has since been filled in. The expansive patio remains (Trib Live. For sale).

    Business closures destroyed many lives. Small business owners in particular were harmed, with many of those closed down businesses never reopening. But the closures of places where people exercise had an effect on not just the owners but their patrons. Simply put, the closures of gyms, parks, golf courses, beaches, even playgrounds contributed to the “quarantine 15” I discussed previously. Those excess pounds raised the risk from Covid for those now even more overweight people.

    The closure of the mentioned golf course hit home, as I worked there as a short order cook back in 1986-88. Back then, it was a country club, only open to members. These new owners opened it to the public. I was sad when I heard the restaurant closed. And it is even worse now with the pool having been filled in, and the golf course itself is now set to close. But the latter was another causality of the medically useless and destructive lockdowns. But also, it was a nine-hole course. I remember many golfers back then complaining about that. But it was too late to expand it to a full 18-holes. And now, nothing will remain of it. So sad.

    That is true of many other businesses. They were on the downtrend before the pandemic, but the lockdowns did them in. That was the case for the next class of places that were hurt by the lockdowns.

Church Closures:

      Former churches are ending up on the real estate market — and ultimately being repurposed as restaurants, wineries, residences and more — as congregations shrink and churches close.

      According to a 2022 study by the Pew Research Center, 57% of Americans did not attend church or watch a religious service online. In a 2019 Gallup poll, 53% of participants said they did not belong to a church or synagogue.

      At least 33 former religious buildings were on the real estate market in Pennsylvania as recently as this month, with 10 such buildings available in Allegheny County [where Pittsburgh is located] (Trib Live. Former).

      The potential owners of the former Holy Martyrs Church in Tarentum are moving forward with their original plan to open a fitness center inside the shuttered facility and build a practice field alongside it….

      Legends of Pittsburgh is expected to move from the Pittsburgh Mills mall in Frazer to the 51-year-old church building at 344 W. Ninth Ave. after the sale closes in December [2023]….

      Holy Martyrs was among five churches in Guardian Angels Parish shuttered last year by the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh (Trib Live. Legends).

Two Catholic churches will be combined into a new parish in 2024, [Pittsburgh] diocesan officials announced Saturday [11/25/23]….

The merger will bring the number of diocesan parishes from 61 to 60. In 2020, there were 152 parishes, which were trimmed to 106 by similar parish mergers, diocesan records show (Trib Live. Pittsburgh).

    The above three quotations are from the website for three Pittsburgh, PA area newspapers, including this writer’s hometown paper. They all appeared on the website the same day, November 27, 2023. They represent the worst of all of the lockdowns, that of churches.

    The left has been trying to secularize America for decades, and this was their big chance to break Americans of the habit of attending church. And it worked. Even now, with the lockdowns ended, church attendance has not returned to pre-pandemic levels, and churches are closing across the country.

      That cultural change will have long-term consequences that we are already seeing. Rising crimes rates, such as the aforementioned increase in shootings. But with the worst are the random acts of violence that have been occurring. Respect for human life, property, and authority is at an all time low. Next to the home, it is at church that Americans traditionally learned morals and values.

      But now, with the breakdown of the traditional American family and the rapid drop in church attendance, that rise in the lack of respect will continue unabated. See my article Churches are Essential for more in this regard. And I will be extending this section into a full article for the next issue of my Christian Darkness to light newsletter at the beginning of next year (2024).

Conclusion

      There is now a push for “Covid amnesty.” The idea being, let’s just forgive and forget all of the steps taken during the pandemic, as everyone was just trying as best as they could in the light of limited information about Covid. Of course, those pushing that idea are those who pushed illogical and unscientific ideas like lockdowns.

      I for one was hoping those responsible, namely Democratic leaders, would be “punished” by a red wave at the ballot box in the 2022 elections. But sadly, that did not happen. Incredibly, even Gretchen Whitmer, the Democrat governor of Michigan, who had the most oppressive lockdown policies imaginable, won reelection.

    However, I hope we never forget the uselessness of the lookdowns and the destruction they caused, so they never are repeated. That is the reason for this two-part article, to stand as a record of that useless and destructive nature of the locdowns.

References:

    AP. Gyms That Survived COVID Get Back in Shape (via Trib Live).

    AP. Pennsylvania's acting health secretary to step down (via WTAE).

    Breitbart. Lockdown Harmed Emotional Development of Children, UK Study Finds.

    Breitbart. Pinkerton: 1989: Fall of the Berlin Wall; 2022: Fall of the Covid Wall.

    Blaze. Lockdowns aged teens' brains, caused severe mental health problems, new study finds.

    Daily Wire. Latest Evidence Lockdowns Were A Disaster: Child Shootings Skyrocketed In Four Liberal Cities.

    Commonwealth Fund. Impact of U.S. COVID-19 Vaccination Efforts: An Update on Averted Deaths, Hospitalizations, and Health Care Costs Through March 2022.

    Daily Sceptic. Sweden Wins! Country That Refused Lockdown and Kept Schools Open Has Lowest Pandemic Mortality in the World.

    Fox Business. Eight times this conservative think tank was ahead of media, health officials on key COVID-19 facts.

    Fox Business. Pandemic learning loss could cost students $70,000 in lifetime earnings.

    John Hopkins. Literature Review and Meta-Analysis of the Effects of Lockdowns on COVID-19 Mortality.

    Newsmax. 6 COVID 'Conspiracies' That Were Correct.

    Newsmax. Johns Hopkins Researchers: Lockdowns Had Little Impact on COVID Deaths.

    Newsmax. Study: COVID-19 Infects Through Touched Surfaces.

    NYP. Kids infected with more viruses after lockdown weakened immune systems.

    Townhall. Here’s the Horrific Development About All Those Kids Who Got Hepatitis During the COVID Pandemic.

    Trib Live. Dry January continues to rise in popularity.

    Trib Live. For sale: Brackenridge Heights Golf Course listed for $2.5M in Harrison.

    Trib Live. Former churches are finding new life after religious calling.

     Trib Live. Legends of Pittsburgh fitness center eyes April opening at former Holy Martyrs in Tarentum.

     Trib Live. Pa. school test scores still trail pre-pandemic levels.

     Trib Live. Pittsburgh diocese merges two parishes into one, dropping total to 60.

    Washington Examiner. Nation’s report card shows largest ever drop in math scores.

    The approach of this book is to study different foods and food groups, with a chapter devoted to each major classification of foods. First the Biblical evidence is considered, then the modern-day scientific research is reviewed. Foods are then classified as “God-given foods” and “non-God-given foods.” The main point will be a healthy eating plan is composed of a variety of God-given foods and avoids non-God-given foods.

References:

      See Update on Covid Deaths (Refuting Covid Lies by the Right and Fearmongering by the Left): References.

Medically Useless and Destructive Lockdowns: Part Two. Copyright © 2023 by Gary F. Zeolla (www.Zeolla.org).

The above article was first posted on this website January 13, 2023.
It was updated and expended on December 13, 2023.