Molecular Biology of the Cell by Bruce Alberts, Alexander Johnson, Julian Lewis, David Morgan, Martin Raff, Keith Roberts, Peter Walter by by Bruce Alberts, Alexander Johnson, Julian Lewis, David Morg

particularly among the young denied the freedom to associate with
their friends. A study of 49,000 people in English-speaking countries
concluded that almost half of young adults are at clinical risk of
mental health disorders. A national survey in America of 1,000
currently enrolled high school and college students found that 5
percent reported a empting suicide during the pandemic. Data from
the US CDC’s National Syndromic Surveillance Program from
January 1st to October 17th, 2020, revealed a 31 percent increase in
mental health issues among adolescents aged 12 to 17 compared
with 2019. The CDC reported that America in general suffered the
biggest drop in life expectancy since World War Two as it fell by a
year in the first half of 2020 as a result of ‘deaths of despair’ –
overdoses and suicides. Deaths of despair have leapt by more than
20 percent during lockdown and include the highest number of fatal
overdoses ever recorded in a single year – 81,000. Internet addiction
is another consequence of being isolated at home which lowers
interest in physical activities as kids fall into inertia and what’s the
point? Children and young people are losing hope and giving up on
life, sometimes literally. A 14-year-old boy killed himself in
Maryland because he had ‘given up’ when his school district didn’t
reopen; an 11-year-old boy shot himself during a zoom class; a
teenager in Maine succumbed to the isolation of the ‘pandemic’
when he ended his life a er experiencing a disrupted senior year at
school. Children as young as nine have taken their life and all these
stories can be repeated around the world. Careers are being
destroyed before they start and that includes those in sport in which
promising youngsters have not been able to take part. The plan of
the psycho-psychologists is working all right. Researchers at
Cambridge University found that lockdowns cause significant harm
to children’s mental health. Their study was published in the
Archives of Disease in Childhood, and followed 168 children aged
between 7 and 11. The researchers concluded:
During the UK lockdown, children’s depression symptoms have increased substantially,
relative to before lockdown. The scale of this effect has direct relevance for the continuation
of different elements of lockdown policy, such as complete or partial school closures …