‘Lockdown established a new caste system’

May 9, 2022 by

from spiked:

Jay Bhattacharya on the devastating consequences of lockdown for the world’s poorest.

The Covid lockdowns of the past two years have left a trail of devastation in their wake. When the virus first hit, governments across the world rushed to shut down their economies and keep children out of school. At the time, this was viewed as a necessary and rational response to the viral threat. But the collateral damage is now overwhelming. Worse still, the pain caused by lockdown has not been shared equally. It has largely been felt by those at the bottom – by the working classes of the developed world and those living hand-to-mouth in developing countries.

Jay Bhattacharya is professor of medicine at Stanford University and co-author of the Great Barrington Declaration. He joined Brendan O’Neill for the latest episode of his podcast, The Brendan O’Neill Show. What follows is an edited extract from their conversation. Listen to the full episode here

[…]   There was a long literature prior to the pandemic that showed that even short interruptions in schooling can have profound consequences on the life of children. They end up living shorter lives, less healthy lives, poorer lives. Schooling is probably the single best social investment we make. And we threw it away.

And that is just the US. I’m even more worried about the situation in poor countries. In Uganda, 4.5million children are never going to go back to school after two years of closed schools. Bangladesh closed schools for 18 months. India closed schools for 18 months. The consequences for the next generation are just staggering.

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