NOT BY THE PANDEMIC, BUT BY THE GOVERNMENT/MEDIA RESPONSE TO THE PANDEMIC: Surgeon General alarmed by rise in child suicides triggered by pandemic. “A big problem is a lack of social contact with friends, classmates, and teachers. One in five young people reports experiencing symptoms of depression and one in four suffer from anxiety. Their lives have been turned upside down at a crucial time in their development. Given that we know that children do not suffer from the same problems from COVID-19 as adults do, the harm being done to children is all the more tragic.”

I was talking to a couple of freshman advisors from UT, and they noted that our freshmen had crucial years of their educations and development done online, which leaves them socially and intellectually behind in many ways. And the mental health problems, already bad pre-pandemic, are much worse.