From WSJopinion: “We’ve seen a year’s worth of suicide attempts in the last four weeks.” MonicaGandhi9 and JeanneNoble18 on how the pandemic-control measures have taken a toll on teens' mental health.
last week warning that adolescent hospitalizations due to Covid-19 were on the rise. The media picked up the message and ran with it. But it isn’t true. The CDC misrepresented the data and played down a more important finding that provides further evidence that pandemic-control measures are likely having a serious adverse impact on young people’s mental health.
The CDC truncated its analysis at the precise date—April 24—that would cast an increase in teen hospitalization in the worst possible light. The 10% rise in early March that attracted so many headlines was similar to rises in other age groups and had declined sharply by late April. Adolescent hospitalizations for Covid-19 were back down to 0.6 per 100,000 by late May, before the CDC report was published, and well below the rate of 2.6 for the adult U.S. population.
But while the CDC oversold the teen Covid narrative, it failed to emphasize the most troubling aspect of its study: 20% of teen hospitalizations in the study between Jan. 1 and March 31, 2021, were for psychiatric emergencies, not Covid. Although pandemic-related closures have made it difficult to study the mental health of children during the past year, the available data point to a crisis.
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