Lockdowns and Psychological Distress | Eastern NC Now

Publisher's Note: This post appears here courtesy of the John Locke Foundation. The author of this post is Jon Sanders.

    Brad Polumbo at the Foundation for Economic Education discusses recent findings by Pew Research Center. About one in three young adults (32%) under 30 reported experiencing high levels of "psychological distress." Another third (31%) reported medium levels. Nearly half (45%) reported being "nervous, anxious or on edge" at least "occasionally or a moderate amount of time." Women and poorer adults were more adversely affected with psychological distress.

    Polumbo noted:

• The death rate for members of this age group, approximately 18 to 29, is between .003% and .013% — a tiny sub-fraction of a percentage. So, it's not the virus itself or fear of it, but primarily the deprivation of their lives and livelihoods that is dragging young Americans down.
• "Young people have been a particular group of concern during the pandemic for mental health professionals, and young adults stand out in the current survey for exhibiting higher levels of psychological distress than other age groups," Pew explains. "The shutdowns have disrupted job opportunities, college experiences, and the mixing and mingling that marks the transition to adulthood."
• The only conclusion left to draw is that young people are having life-threatening psychological distress and trauma inflicted on them by overzealous government lockdown policies.