One of my siblings is going to school once a week, I think lockdowns definitely fried some brains.

    • TheModerateTankie [any]
      ·
      11 months ago

      Here's some data: https://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/pisa-und-pandemie-lerndefizit-wegen-geschlossener-schulen-fehlanzeige-496463346068

      Children in Sweden, where they never closed schools, are performing worse than counterparts in other countries where they closed schools the longest.

      Choice quote, translated with google:

      If you compare the cumulative PISA performance in mathematics, reading and science in 25 European countries over the same period, Sweden is one of the nations with higher losses. Countries with long and strict corona measures such as Ireland or Italy, however, lost almost no PISA points. There is no direct causal connection between the duration of closed schools and educational performance. The authors of the official Swiss Pisa report also confirm this.

        • TheModerateTankie [any]
          ·
          11 months ago

          Covid is known to cause brain damage. It crosses the blood brain barrier. For instance, people losing their sense of smell, or having it altered for months or years, is a result of brain damage and was one of the most common reported effects of covid. It's also widely reported that people are having memory problems after a covid infection.

          This study from Africa found 50% of covid survivors (lots of undiagnosed cases, so this is likely only people who were hospitalized or sought medical care) had lingering health problems, mostly psychological.

          The team, led by researchers from the University of Bari in Italy, found a long-COVID rate of 48.6%, with a predominance of psychiatric conditions, especially post-traumatic stress disorder (25.8%).

          The most common neurologic symptom was cognitive impairment (15%), and shortness of breath was the most common respiratory symptom (18.3%), followed by cough (10.7%). Other notable symptoms were loss of appetite (12.7%), weight loss (10.4%), fatigue (35.4%), and muscle pain (15.5%). A quarter (25.4%) of patients reported poor quality of life.

          Kids aren't immune, they only had severe consequences at a much lower rate. Many weren't vaccinated at all, or aren't continuing to be vaccinated, because of the myth that covid doesn't hurt kids and reinfections are benign.

          The current understanding is that the odds of long term health impacts, long covid, from an infection is basically the same as you rolling snake eyes on a pair of dice, each time you are infected. Those are bad odds and even if kids fare better than adults at the moment, it's going to have a big impact.