The Surgeon General fights Loneliness & Social Media Use in Kids: Harms fueled by his own Administration's failed COVID policy
The irony escapes the media
In Jan 2021, when this administration came into office, it sought to expedite reopening on schools. They had a 100 day plan for elementary and middle school (K-8), but high schools were notoriously not on their priority list (sad). Yet, despite pushing teachers (who are 100 to 1000 times less likely to die than older people) to the front of the line for vaccines, they failed to achieve even this modest goal. Schools remained closed in many (predominately blue cities) till the fall, when they would at last reopen with mandatory cloth masks for kids (genius idea).
Why? The simple explanation is that this administration worked too closely with teachers unions, who worked to sabotage reopening since the spring of 2020, and was wedded to impossible mitigation standards which were ultimately never put into place (HVAC upgrades), and never used or needed in other countries (e.g. Sweden).
School closure served no purpose. A number of studies reveal massive drops in educational attainment. Meanwhile, school closure did not slow the spread of the virus, according to multiple papers, including this Scandinavian report. Nor did it help children avoid COVID. Nearly all US children got COVID prior to vaccines. (PS: Covid vaccines in kids have no good data they reduce severe disease or hospitalization/ case control studies fundamentally sample different populations). School closure did not have trade-offs, it was only self inflicted harm.
Now the Surgeon General is on two campaigns. First, he is warning that social media is harmful to kids— a widely held view, but one that still lacks very high quality causal data.
Next, he is on a campaign against loneliness. But does he not see the irony?
School closures and preventing teens from interacting— increased online social media use, particularly in lieu of in person interactions. Given the IFR of COVID at these ages, and given that all kids would eventually get COVID anyway (pre-vax), this was disastrous public policy. Those who argued kids lives should not be disrupted have been vindicated.
Lockdowns and social distance cost people time with loved ones, fueling loneliness. The surgeon general’s priorities are consequence of (or at least worsened by) the policies he supported when he advised candidate Biden, and the policies his administration enacted. They failed to open all schools in 100 days, costing kids massive educational attainment, which will lead to massive years of life lost.
Many in public health argue that prevention is better than treatment. By this metric, the Surgeon General’s policies are a catastrophic failure— trying to clean up his own medical malpractice and iatrogenic injury.
A balanced media would at least press him on this issue— and make this argument— and yet I have seen no such coverage. This is deeply concerning to have journalism have two standards, based solely on partisan politics, for asking tough questions.
Excellent and spot-on criticism of the Surgeon General. The main stream media treats covid in the most absurd way when it blames "covid" rather than the "reaction to covid" for issues such as declining educational outcomes, worsened youth mental health, etc, etc. This is perfectly illustrated by a story from PBS: "Test scores show how COVID set kids back across the U.S." This way of framing poor outcomes drives me crazy!
Apparently, MSM journalists and editors are unaware that covid is not responsible for these problems, but the ill-conceived policies driven by public health officials. The Wall Street Journal seems to be one of very few legacy news organizations that challenges the boneheadedness of main stream public health authorities.
Vinay, Slowly but surely the truth will red pill anyone...even you. The trouble with all government is that it seeks power for its own sake. Believing that these are "giving Democrats" is nonsensical -- there may be such a thing but it is not part of government. Virtually every pronouncement/action vis-à-vis Covid was wrong and was done for the wrong reasons ("Yay, we can use this to get rid of Orange Man Bad".) I admire you for admitting this both to yourself and to your ever-broadening readership.
But you must assume that the 87,000 new armed IRS agents are also not their for "your good"...as has already been demonstrated in the persecution of far-left reporter Matt Taibi. This is a bigger issue than science, medicine, or covid but it is one that we will need to address NOW if we are to save the country from its current slide. Sadly, politics are a major part of making this happen, but at least it is clear even to rational people on the left where the problem is.
We would all love some suggestions as to what to do about it all, though. Everything you say is correct but they keep piling on the abuse anyway. Just sit there and write notes to sympathetic listeners? Preaching to the choir is fun but not world-changing. Most of us would love to do more. You have a place for doing that and you do. What else?