Five times more children committed suicide than died from COVID-19 during lockdown: UK study

Five times more children and young people have committed suicide than deaths from COVID-19 in the UK’s first year of pandemic, study finds, which also found lockdowns more damaging to health children than the virus itself.

Researchers from University College London, University of York, University of Liverpool and University of Bristol found in a study (pdf) that has not yet been peer reviewed that the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, otherwise known as the coronavirus, does not appear to pose a significant risk to children compared to other age groups.

The study concluded: “The risk of withdrawal of CYP (children and youth) from their normal activities through education and social events may prove to be a greater risk than that of SARS-CoV-2 itself. . ” Another name for the CCP virus is SARS-CoV-2.

It was revealed in the study that only 25 children under the age of 18 died from COVID-19 from the start of the pandemic until the end of February 2021. Around 61 children in total died after testing positive, but in 36 cases it was found. the virus “did not contribute to their death”.

But during the same period, there were 124 child suicides and 268 trauma deaths, the study authors found, while noting that the virus is “rarely fatal” to children.

“These new studies show that the risks of serious illness or death from SARS-CoV-2 are extremely low in children and young people,” said Professor Russell Viner of University College London, senior author of the study, in a statement released this week. “Our new findings are important because they will inform protection guidelines for young people as well as decisions about the vaccination of adolescents and children, not only in the UK but internationally.”

York University Professor Lorna Fraser added that “even when we found higher risks for some groups with serious medical conditions, those risks were still very low compared to the risks seen in adults,” explaining that people should know that the risk of COVID-19 for children “is very low”.

Meanwhile, Dr Elizabeth Whittaker of Imperial College London said researchers hope “the data will be reassuring for children and young people and their families.”

In November, a British researcher issued a warning that COVID-19 lockdowns are causing an increase in the number of children harming themselves and drug overdoses in children.

“Children are a tribe lost in the pandemic. While they remain (for the most part) surprisingly immune to the health consequences of COVID-19, their lives and daily routines have been turned upside down, ”wrote Dr John Wright of Bradford Royal Infirmary at the time.