Lockdowns are causing lifelong problems for youth

For nearly a year, we have been inundated with daily reports of COVID-19 infections and deaths. What has been vastly under-reported, however, is the raging “shadow pandemic” that threatens to extinguish the light of our young people — the future engines, brains and hearts of our nation.

COVID-19 reduction measures have been hard on everyone. We are all trying to protect ourselves and each other from COVID, but not everyone is equally equipped to do so. Most adults have the perspective and wherewithal to make the best of life under quarantine. Many youths do not.

As a mother, I can no longer remain silent about the toll lockdowns are taking on teens and young adults.

Adolescence and emergent adulthood are crucial years: a time of intense learning, engagement and self-expression. When I was 16 and a new immigrant to Canada, music was my ticket out of loneliness, first as a singer with the high school jazz band and then with a youth swing orchestra.

I’ve built a career on a foundation of discovery in my teens. It has catapulted me to worldwide touring, four albums, a Juno Award and a Grammy nomination. Who knows where I would be now had I been locked up at home, a shy girl with a tenuous mastery of English and parents who were struggling to make ends meet?

For the last several weeks, schools have been closed. University students haven’t seen the inside of a lecture hall in nearly a year. Sports, music and arts programs have been cancelled indefinitely. All gatherings continue to be stigmatized.

Young people are confined to their homes, their worlds reduced to screens. Many are bored, unmotivated or unable to learn. Social media inundates them with images of sexualized bodies and questionable behaviour. Some are driven to substances to fill the void dance, hockey or art class used to fill. Youths are living through extreme isolation and distress, deprived of all healthy outlets.

Meanwhile, parents are stretched beyond capacity. They are torn between their children and their jobs and many struggle to find reliable child-care. Still others are without work, distraught by their inability to provide. Our children watch us flounder, internalize our stresses, and become increasingly disillusioned by what the future holds, as our country digs itself into an ever-deepening crisis.

The picture is as grim as it is clear: youths are being saddled with lifelong problems as a result of prolonged lockdowns.

We are seeing more overdose deaths than ever. Children are presenting with severe eating disorders or teetering on the edge of obesity. The number of young people living in unsafe homes is staggering — and is likely underestimated because so much abuse is now invisible, with kids disconnected from teachers, coaches and confidantes. Young people are experiencing unprecedented levels of depression and anxiety. Mental health support has always been scarce. COVID has done nothing to improve access.

Since March we have been conditioned to fear the virus above all and to accept, unquestioningly, the avalanche of challenges created by lockdown measures. Yet here we are, 11 months in, without a robust asymptomatic testing program or widespread rapid testing. We’ve vaccinated only 3 per cent of our population. Is it really possible that the only answer for one of the world’s most prosperous countries is to lock down society indiscriminately, indefinitely, and at all costs?

The Ford government has made the correct decision to return to in-person learning this month, but it must do more. Athletic and artistic programs should be allowed to resume with appropriate precautions. Hockey, tennis, swimming, and other activities that take place either outside or in spacious facilities must reopen.

Common sense has to prevail. While COVID-19 is serious, its mortality in younger people is low. But the number of youths we stand to lose to the shadow pandemic is truly alarming. Our legitimate vigilance around COVID-19 must be tempered by concern for our children’s well-being.

I stand with the growing chorus of physicians, therapists, and parents who are calling for the reopening of the activities that will set our young people up for good and healthy lives. School, sports and the arts aren’t luxuries. They are necessities.

Good governance is rooted in prioritization and reasonable risk assessment. The fight against COVID-19 should be no exception. We cannot continue to adhere blindly to measures that come at the expense of our youth. We must not derail their lives indefinitely. This lockdown is robbing our children of the healthy and prosperous future we owe them.

Adolescence and emergent adulthood are crucial years: a time of intense learning, engagement and self-expression