Lockdown effects still emerging
Almost four years after the first COVID lockdowns began, negative effects are still being confirmed.
The Guardian has just reported on a brand new study that found that lockdowns “had lasting impact” on the cognitive health of British adults ages 50 and over. The report by the University of Exeter and King’s College London says subjects’ cognitive function and working memory declined under the horrors of lockdowns. This was because of factors including an increase in loneliness and depression. The lockdown-induced trend continued into 2022.
The Guardian reported that this study is the largest so far linking “the enormous lifestyle shifts triggered by lockdowns and other Covid restrictions” to sustained cognitive decline. In addition to loneliness and depression, other factors include a lockdown-related decline in exercise and higher alcohol consumption. This cognitive descent increases risk of dementia.
We would expect the same effects in other countries, especially in “zero COVID” outposts like much of the United States. It’s also clear from the study that even older adults were not saved by lockdowns—despite the battle cry about how lockdown dissidents were “killing Grandma.”
A new study in the U.S. by the American Psychological Association says Americans continue to feel worse than they did before the pandemic. Nearly one-fourth of adults reported a stress level of at least eight out of 10.
So it’s never really over.
Some warned early on of results like this, but our rulers chose to stick their fingers in their ears and not listen. Not only did their sweeping program of lockdowns, mandates, and fear lack any robust evidence of benefits, but there was also strong evidence that it would result in severe harm—and they ignored this evidence.
It should be reiterated that no other virus has ever resulted in such an extreme restructuring of society, even though other viruses—some fairly common—are more dangerous to young people. When people talk about years stolen by COVID, what they really mean is years stolen by the failed response to COVID—like enacting new stay-at-home orders even after vaccines were released or closing schools and masking two-year-olds even into 2022.