Newsweek: Number of U.S. NEETs grows due to COVID

 

Newsweek magazine reports that the number of young Americans employed or in education has increased massively since the state of the COVID pandemic. 

For one, the idea that they're all rejecting college because entry-level jobs pay much more than they used to turns out to be something of a myth: Bogged down perhaps by a pandemic malaise, as many as one in six young adults ages 18 to 24 are neither in school nor working, according to an analysis for Newsweek by Lightcast, a data-driven labor market consulting firm. In other words, they're doing...nothing.

Disconnected from the mainstream economy, these young adults risk staying unemployed and under-educated, struggling to catch up with their peers. "People who are not working nor in school are potentially missing out on some really formative skill building years," says Lightcast senior economist Layla O'Kane. Studies suggest these young people may face lifelong consequences, including lower wages throughout their careers, higher risk of unemployment and greater odds of poor health. 

Likely fearmongering over COVID had a big part in it.  Young people were told over and over again that the world was ending and that they were super-spreaders (both untrue).  Under those circumstances, who would be motivated to start a career, train for many years for a job, or start a business.   

Harvard Student Blasts School’s Insane COVID Policies, Conformity and Condescension

 

“We may be the future decision makers, but most of us aren’t leaders” writes Julie Hartman in the Wall Street Journal

College students have de minimis risk from COVID.  Yet universities have imposed irrational and draconian mask and vaccination policies on students with harsh consequences for those who do not obey, or even speak up, against administration edicts.

One Yale student likened life on campus to that of a “surveillance state.”  At the University of Chicago students were forced to sign a “Required COVID-19 Attestation” in direct contradiction to the school’s academic freedom policies. 

Hartman writes that all this insanity has infantilized her generation of college students. 

More concerning than the administration’s heavy-handedness has been the zombielike response of the student body. I ask my friends, “Why do young, fully vaccinated students continue to tolerate these irrational Covid restrictions?” While many of my peers acknowledge the excess, they shrug it off. The prevailing mood on campus is resignation, learned helplessness and reluctance to dissent.

These policies have also empowered groups of students to act as self-appointed enforcers who use COVID policies to bludgeon their fellow students.   

There is a smaller group at Harvard that apparently find pleasure in these restrictions. These students will chastise you for not wearing a mask correctly and called one of my brave peers who publicly denounced Harvard’s Covid restrictions a “eugenicist” because he supposedly showed insufficient sensitivity to immunocompromised people. They love Covid for the moral high ground it gives them to condescend to and control others.

Red Guards in training?  Don’t be so quick to dismiss.  The unfortunate truth is that events in early life, including those during the college experience, have an important role in forming our outlook and behaviors in later life. 

For many, that means sheepish, unquestioning adherence to edicts of the elites no matter how silly or irrational. 

For others, that means becoming hectoring, humorless bureaucrats, politicians and bosses. 

What does that mean for America?  As Hartman puts it: “My peers and I are often told that we are the future leaders of America. We may be the future decision makers, but most of us aren’t leaders. The inability of Harvard students to question or oppose these irrational bureaucratic excesses bodes ill for our ability to meet future challenges.”

Indeed.

Japan PM: No Mandates or Discrimination Against the Unvaccinated

 

The loss of civil liberties as well as civility resulting from the COVID pandemic will haunt the United States and young people in particular for decades to come.  

The way that American politicians speak to us belies the contempt that they have in their hearts for the people of this country.  The division between the people and powerful in the United States has become particularly evident in the last two years.    

While leaders of many other nations address their countryman as intelligent individuals capable of evaluating risks and taking appropriate measures, American politicians like Joe Biden constantly talk down to American citizens. 

Contrast the rhetoric of American politicians and government officials with those in Japan. 

The Japanese government offers a balanced view of vaccine risks and completely rejects mandates and discrimination based on vaccination status.   

From the Japan Ministry of Health website:

Although we encourage all citizens to receive the COVID-19 vaccination, it is not compulsory or mandatory. Vaccination will be given only with the consent of the person to be vaccinated after the information provided. Please get vaccinated of your own decision, understanding both the effectiveness in preventing infectious diseases and the risk of side effects. No vaccination will be given without consent. Please do not force anyone in your workplace or those who around you to be vaccinated, and do not discriminate against those who have not been vaccinated.

The Prime Minister of Japan took a similar measured, adult tone in his address to the nation in which has also rejected mandatory vaccinations and urged people to avoid discrimination against the unvaccinated. 

From Prime Minister Kono’s speech:

Vaccines will never be administered without the recipient’s consent. We urge the public never to coerce vaccinations at the workplace or upon others around them, and never to treat those who have not received the vaccine in a discriminatory manner.

Contrast the measured, reasoned statements of Japanese officials with the near-hysterical rhetoric of Joe “dark winter” Biden and Anthony Fauci. 

Contrast also the rejection of mandates in Japan with the authoritarian requirements and restrictions imposed by Joe Biden, Charlie Baker and now Boston Mayor Michelle Wu.  These mandates demonstrate that politicians like Biden, Baker and Wu don’t believe that the American people are intelligent enough to make their own healthcare decisions.

Japan’s politicians and government officials offer and treat their countrymen with respect.  American politicians and government officials treat their countrymen with disdain. 

Hopefully the American people will soon tire of being talked down to and will find leaders that respect the intelligence and reason of the American public.  Until then we are lions led by donkeys.

Another Consequence of the Lockdowns for Young People

 Over the next decade the consequences of the COVID lockdowns will become increasingly apparent.  This is especially the of the costs to young people who bore little risk from COVID but suffered mightily from the measures taken to protect the old and infirm from the disease.  

The CDC is now warning that the lockdowns have created an epidemic of obesity among young Americans.  As if this couldn't have been foreseen from closing the gym and schools and most ridiculous of all, restricting people from going outside in the fresh air.  

From the Epoch Times:

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said children and teenagers in the United States saw their body mass index (BMI) increase at almost double the normal rate during the COVID-19 pandemic, suggesting that COVID-19 lockdowns and rules may have contributed to the higher-than-usual weight gain.

According to the agency’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, released Thursday, officials noted that individuals aged 2 to 19 saw their BMI “increase approximately doubled during the pandemic compared to a prepandemic period,” adding that “persons with prepandemic overweight or obesity and younger school-aged children experienced the largest increases.”

Harvard Professor: Vaccine Passports Don't Work

Professor Martin Kulldorf, a Harvard epidemiologist has been making the case against COVID passports and mandates.  In a recent post, he notes the discriminatory effects of the mandates against the working class.  A similar analysis could be applied to the differences in the effects on the mandates on the young versus the old.  Young people have an extremely low morality risk from COVID in the first place but they have suffered far greater harm from the lockdowns and mandates that the old.   

In part, the harm to young people is from a failure to follow The Science.  The accepted wisdom of epidemiologists from the outset was to isolate the vulnerable populations and let everyone else continue with their business.  The CDC and most Western countries did the exact opposite.  Isolate everyone and lockdown the economy.  The longer term effects of these failed policies are increasingly becoming apparent.  It is too bad that many places are intensifying these failed policies through vaccine mandates and passports.  However, at least Denmark has the right idea.  
 

COVID Panic Propaganda is Harmful

Story out of the Boston Herald on hospitals being swamped by psychiatric patients as a result of the lockdowns and COVID hysteria.  It is not surprising as the political class and meia have been telling us for a year and a half that the world is a terrible, dangerous place.  

COVID-induced job losses, fear and isolation have all taken a toll, as well as delays in seeking care, leading to a regular bottleneck of over 500 patients per day in the state awaiting specialized psychiatric care, according to a survey by the Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association conducted this summer.

Patients are also sicker — a new impact of the pandemic — including “patients with severe psychosis, patients with severe depression or other mood symptoms or anxiety that lead to suicidal thoughts, patients coming in after suicide attempts,” said Dr. Sejal Shah, medical psychiatry chief at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

The toll on young people is particularly high.  Brad Polumbo writes that college students are literally frightened out of their wits.  College used to be fun.  Now it's got the feel of an internment camp.

Government restrictions on daily life during the pandemic have fueled a youth mental health crisis . Yet, even with many of these restrictions now lifted, young people are still living in a hysterical state of fear.

Likely as a result of this widespread fear, 61% of students think their schools should impose restrictions on attending parties and large social gatherings. 

There’s just one problem: There’s almost no basis for any of these fears, and college students are living scared of their own shadows for no reason.

For one, COVID-19 does not pose and has never posed a high risk of death or hospitalization for individuals of college-age. (With the rare exception of those with preexisting conditions that compromise their immune system, individuals for whom many diseases are life-threatening.) Yes, COVID-19 is a serious virus and has claimed many lives. But the deaths are almost exclusively among those much older than the college demographic.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, roughly 6,744,362 Americans aged 18 to 29 have tested positive for COVID-19. Among that same age cohort, an estimated 2,951 have died. These figures allow us to calculate a rough fatality rate of 0.04%. This means that if 10,000 members of this age group contract the virus, four will die. And these rates are assuming no vaccination! The available vaccines are highly effective at preventing infections serious enough to lead to hospitalization or death — even for the delta variant . So, for vaccinated students, the risks are even more minuscule.

Depression Soars Among Young People

Panic purveyors in the media and political class have had a heavy toll on young people.  A new study shows that depression and suicide rates among young people have soared as a result of the social isolation imposed by the pandemic.  

School closing have been particularly hard on young people.  The school closing are particular wrong headed because schools have not been shown to be centers for the transmission of COVID.  

"Being socially isolated, kept away from their friends, their school routines and extracurricular activities during the pandemic has proven to be difficult on youth," said lead researcher Sheri Madigan.  She is an assistant professor in the department of psychology at the University of Calgary, in Canada.

"An important consideration for keeping schools open should be the mental health and well-being of youth," Madigan said.  Children tend to thrive when their environment is predictable, and in-person learning allows for more consistent routines and structure, so keeping schools open may protect children from mental health problems, she said.

The increase in suicide and depression rates is particularly alarming.

Dr. Victor Fornari, vice chair of child and adolescent psychiatry at Zucker Hillside Hospital in Glen Oaks, N.Y., said he has seen firsthand the increase in mental health problems among the young.  "We've seen in our emergency rooms a 50% increase in suicidal adolescents presenting over the past 12 months and an almost 300% increase in admissions for eating disorders amongst adolescents," he said.

The pandemic has been stressful for adolescents as they struggle with home instruction and virtual schooling, Fornari said. "School is their social network. Without being with their peers, their friends, they're in a more stressful environment at home."

A COVID Apology from the Media

In an extraordinary statement the chief editor of Bild, the largest German newspaper, apologizes for harming young people and especially children with all the scaremongering over COVID.   The apology  is a blunt admission of the harms caused by the media and government.  He says:

"Millions of children in this country, for whom we are all responsible as a society, I would like to say what our Federal Government and our Chancellor have not dare to say so far: We ask your forgiveness. We ask your forgiveness for a year and a half of politics, who sacrificed you."

The statement, which is in German but with English subtitles, is available here.  

This blog has pointed out on several occasions that high cost of the lockdowns and the fearmongering of the media and the political class.  Let's hope that the statement by Reichelt is a crack in the wall of media disinformation about COVID and its consequences for the population.  

Stimulus update

Young people are the ones that are going to bear the economic costs of the response to the coronavirus pandemic.  If the costs were to be levied on the boomers or older generations, I'm sure that Congress would have spent it more judiciously.  :

https://twitter.com/novogratz/status/1253426742326226944

Two Minnesota economists see the costs to young people of the coronavirus shutdown far outweighing the benefits:

From the Star-Tribune.  Author is the Chair of the Economics Department at te University of Minnesota:

Are these benefits of a continued shutdown sufficient to justify the horrific costs it imposes, especially on the young? I believe not, and instead see continuing our current policies for much longer as generational theft.

Preschool children are losing irreplaceable schooling shown to be crucial in cognitive development. K-12 students are losing schooling shown to have huge returns to their future earning abilities. Undergraduate, graduate and professional students are delaying their productive careers.

The currently unemployed are disproportionally young and losing not only paychecks, but extremely valuable on-the-job experience. Further trillions are being added to the national debt, to be paid by future taxpayers, the young.

There's an opportunity here for a great study on the effect on young people when the shutdown is brief versus of longer duration.  All else equal, young people in Colorado, Oklahoma, Georgia and states where the shutdown was brief should have fewer long-terms effects (career, educational attainment) than young people instates where the shutdown was extensive (New York, New Jersey, Michigan).  This should be particularly important for those at important life turning points like college graduation. 

https://www.startribune.com/a-month-into-mass-quarantine-what-now/569933882/?refresh=true