A new CDC study of teenagers during the pandemic reports alarming levels of depression and thoughts of suicide.  Fox news commentators have combined these results with a “Johns Hopkins University study” done this past January that examined lockdowns across the world and concluded that they did not benefit public health to argue that lockdowns were pernicious.  These same commentators excoriate one of their favorite targets, Dr. Anthony Fauci, for refusing to admit that lockdowns failed and he “screwed everyone over, ruining our lives and our children’s lives.” Some go so far as to recommend that he be charged with child abuse.

There are many things wrong with this picture.  The CDC study did not compare their results to pre-pandemic levels of teenage depression and suicide, which had also been alarming.  Plus, this so-called JHU study has significant problems.  First, it was a working paper that has not been peer-reviewed.  Second, it had a strange definition of lockdowns that seemed to include mask mandates.  Third, it was done not by public health experts but by a group of economists through a conservative institute at JHU that is run by a senior fellow at the right-wing, anti-lockdown Cato Institute.  Far from an unbiased source.

There are plenty of studies and experts who say lockdowns likely saved many lives, and, with even more certainty, prevented public health systems from being overwhelmed with cases requiring hospitalizations.  Yes, lockdowns are a drastic step, but we were and are in the midst of a pandemic.  Reasonable people can and did disagree with the best remedies.  Lockdowns were instituted around the world because many public health experts thought they were required.  Dr. Fauci was not alone, he was just the spokesperson for prevailing scientific opinion.  Making him a target and blaming him is absurd.

The CDC has recently also been blamed for following requests from teachers’ unions about the protocols surrounding school closures and responses to the pandemic.  But the CDC regularly consults with organizations that are affected by their recommendations and neither the CDC nor the unions did anything wrong.

Fox news commentators and other right-wing critics have followed Trump’s playbook and continue to politicize what should be a public health discussion.  The pandemic is a tragedy, and we should all be working together to mitigate its impact.  In the U.S. we have had close to a million of our fellow citizens die of COVID so far and perhaps many more who have long term ill effects from the disease. I think drastic measures were needed, like lockdowns and mask mandates, and may again be needed in the future.  I think public health now demands a vaccine mandate with perhaps a nominal fine for those who refuse without a valid exemption.  All this right-wing nonsense about “freedom” – why should they be “free” to infect the rest of us?!