York County Medicine Summer 2020 - 20

YO R K C O M E D S O C . O R G

COVID-19 Has Doomed Our Children!
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Our brains are wired for in person social interaction, so the
full impact of "socializing" via a screen is something that is not
yet well understood. Research has repeatedly demonstrated that
social contact is vital to the health of human beings, so much
so that babies who are not held and emotionally cared for will
literally turn their face to the wall and die. Physical touch and
positive social interaction also increase our levels of oxytocin, a
bonding agent important in attachment, as well as other things.
It is not logical to expect that socializing through a screen can
meet this biological need.
This brings us to the question of how COVID-19 and
physical distancing may affect our children in the future.
Consider the following possibilities:
1. It is reasonable to expect that social skills may have
degenerated through lack of use.
2. Preschoolers' impressionable minds may have been
stamped with the message that being with other people is
something to avoid.
3. Children whose anxiety increased due to social isolation
and who did not have an adult to help them improve their ability
to cope with that anxiety may experience a worsening of their
overall mental and physical health.
4. Children from homes of domestic violence may have been
more deeply impacted with false messages, such as "to be loved
is to be abused," or that "females are less than males" which may
increase their risk for perpetrating the cycle of domestic violence.
5. Children forced to remain in homes where they were
repeatedly traumatized have an increased risk for a long list of
mental health and physical issues.
6. Children from homes of neglect or limited finances may
experience poor health or malnutrition due to the loss of school
meals and / or their parents' struggle to recover financially.
7. Some children may experience neglect for the first time
if their parent is one of the first line responders who experience
exhaustion and burnout and cannot take care of themselves let
alone their children.
8. Children who lost an important person to COVID-19
will be grieving for years (grief work takes 1-3 years when it is not
complicated by other factors).
9. Children who experienced depression without someone to
help them learn positive ways to cope and address the issue may
turn to suicide as the answer.
10. There may be a noticeable rise in teenage pregnancy due
to weeks of lock down (or the release from lock down).

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York County Medicine | SUMMER 2020
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York County Medicine Summer 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of York County Medicine Summer 2020
