What is Coronavirus hysteria doing to children?

What is Coronavirus hysteria doing to children?

Are we needlessly traumatizing an entire generation of children telling them they might die of a disease they are in fact very unlikely to die from?

Some countries have sensibly exempted children under 12 from having to wear masks because of this, while others claim we must protect them too, adding that we thereby protect vulnerable adults they are in contact with. But there is growing evidence that young children are not contagious because the virus does not ‘hang’ onto them like it does older people. There is also increasing evidence that people are not as contagious when they are asymptomatic, which means that standard protocols for any sickness would be sufficient.

Instead of using common sense, children are being shrouded in an environment of fear. This could have long-term psychological negative effects on children that could outweigh any threat from COVID. Children are vulnerable, psychologically and emotionally, when their brains are still developing, and experiences get imprinted on neurological connections that can cause disruptions to normal development.

Children in the tender years of social development, need to learn how to be both strong individuals yet act responsibly within a group. It is a vital stage when they must learn to be independent and distinct from the collective, yet aware of social responsibilities and grow healthy relationships.

The panic created over COVID is disrupting these stages of development and can have dangerous consequences for them as adults and eventually for society at large.

When irrational anxiety is imposed upon children in an atmosphere which they cannot escape, and when they have to do what fearful adults are telling them, they inevitably suffer trauma. They trust authority figures in their lives to do what is best for them, but when no calamity actually happens, the long-term effects could be serious. It creates an inability to trust, to properly regulate emotions, to productively handle conflict, and to develop healthy relationships, especially those having to do with authority. That fear could even jeopardize their normal ability to love.

While it is certainly good to teach children to be thoughtful of others, this can take a dark turn when “being thoughtful to others” is based on misinformation and political propaganda.

Telling children they might die of a disease they won’t likely die from is cruel. It creates unhealthy fear and trauma. Protecting children from ‘monsters’ that don’t really exist, generates insecurity instead of strength. The best way to raise children is to empower them to face their fears and to become strong. This is as much true for their spirits and their minds as their bodies.

Is it not perhaps true that by exposing children to the virus, they would be strengthened in their physical immunity to it? There would of course be a slight risk, but every time a child walks out the door, he is at risk. She could be run over by a car. She could catch TB. He could fall out of a tree and break a limb. He could dive into a pool and drown.

The fragility of life is the reason parents must help children face threats in a realistic way. We must avoid over-protecting them from the realities of life, but also avoid terrorizing them either. We live in a strange time in which authorities seem to be both terrorizing and protecting them at the same time. We frighten them about things they don’t need to be scared of, while shielding them from risks and realities that none of us can control anyway. All the while they are being exposed so many other kinds of spiritual and emotional corruption and abuse. They watch all sorts of decadent, violent, and sexualized imagery on TV without any moral to the story. They play computer games which glorify brutal ‘heroism’. They get spoilt and cultivate an attitude of entitlement. Their spirituality is neglected as entertainment trumps the values of the gospel. They risk becoming people who are afraid of the wrong things, spiritually vulnerable, and emotionally weak. They risk becoming more concerned about compliance to government restrictions than to God’s will.

How can we better help them become independent, critical thinkers without being selfish anarchists and hyper-individualists?

How can we prevent false fear and trauma in children who should be learning to socialize correctly, in a free educational environment, and enjoy the thrill of growing up?

I fear that the compulsory wearing of masks, the constant mandatory “washing of hands for at least 20 seconds”, the forced closing of schools, separating the young from their peers, … is the wrong way of going about it! Recommend the best options, but don’t take away the obligation of every citizen and institute in society to freely act responsibly and with concern for the common good. We should not require laws to enforce that!

The danger of deadly viruses lurking around every corner is going to be with us probably for several decades. We need to let children live their lives with all the risk that will entail, informing them about the threats to life, while still appropriately protecting them, empowering them to face death as part of life, and  teaching them to be sensitive to the feelings of others without slavishly trying to meet their expectations, or complying with every government regulation. Not everything which is legal is moral. Not everything that is legislated is correct. We risk developing a fearful generation that will not rely on God for guidance to happiness and salvation, but solely on human rulings if we constantly insist they must follow so many government regulations.

Governments, public health experts and the media must stop driving fear into citizens, and instead empower people to work out how to protect themselves and their livelihoods. Why are governments treating their populations as if they are all babies needing a nanny? Apart from dictatorships, never was it known that the responsibility of citizens for their own basic welfare was completely removed from them! And what is surprising is that people have been ready to submit to this. Perhaps only because of the scaremongering and conditioning which prepared them for total subjugation. How can people accept such dictatorial measures as a ban on the sale of alcohol and cigarettes for months, when they react at the slightest recall of apartheid’s oppression? Perhaps again, only because they had been scared enough by the authorities. If such brainwashing “worked” on adults, what have all the scare tactics used to keep children in tow done to their ever more impressionable minds?!

I believe that there has been overkill, a disproportionate restrictive response to Covid-19 worldwide.

Call me a naive afro-optimist or a ‘covid-denialist’, but remember that all those predictions that we would be suffering hundreds of thousands of deaths (if not millions) throughout the continent by the start of May have still (in August 2020) not materialised! Africa still has not reached 24,000 fatalities from the coronavirus which less than the ordinary flu death toll every year, and a fraction of the deaths from malaria, TB, HIV/AIDS, cancer,…  So why the hysteria inducing media frenzy?