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A 14 February Wall Street Journal article revealed that “pediatricians are warning the coronavirus pandemic’s protracted disruption of in-person schooling, sports, and other activities is leading to weight gain that could have long-lasting impacts on children’s health.”
Doctors are seeing how the stress from prolonged school closings, forcing students to learn from home on computer screens, has increased snacking and has restricted physical exercise, which pediatricians well-versed in obesity issues note “is putting children at greater risk for type-two diabetes and asthma, among other health concerns.”
Dr. Hai Cao, a pediatrician in Brooklyn, NY, told the interviewer, “We’re seeing a lot of elementary school-aged kids who are gaining 20 to 30 pounds in a year.”
Staten Island physician assistant Brittany Wilson added,
“Even kids in grammar school are getting depressed. They miss their friends. A lot aren’t doing as well academically. With depression also comes weight gain. They’re bored, and I think they’re comfort-eating.”
Michael Yedidia, Research Professor and Senior Medical Sociologist at Rutgers University, helped lead a study showing that when children from low-income families attend school, they get more nutritious meals and have healthier weights. (The National School Lunch Program serves over 30 million children, and the School Breakfast Program serves over 14.7 million children.)
Also, walking to and from school along with gym classes and organized school sports greatly increases the crucial health benefits kids need from exercise and fresh air.
Dr. Sandra Hassink, director of the Institute for Healthy Childhood Weight, voiced considerable concern about food insecurity due to extended lockdowns forcing kids to eat cheap junk food with little to no nutritional value. “I sometimes think of this as the footprint COVID-19 will leave on our population—increased obesity, food insecurity, and chronic disease.”
It is not new news that extended lockdowns would cause this problem. This past 20 June, Myles Faith, a professor of psychology at the University of Buffalo whose specialty is childhood obesity, wrote:
“Depending on the duration of the lockdown, the excess weight gained may not be easily reversible and might contribute to obesity during adulthood if healthier behaviors are not re-established.”
TRENDPOST: Re-established? Junk food culture is as American as apple pie (not Mom’s home-baked, rather store-bought brands made with hydrogenated oils and saturated with chemicals).
The Trends Journal has written numerous articles detailing how the U.S. government, giant agri-business corporations, and incessant media advertising have tens of millions of Americans hooked on junk food. (See our 26 January article, “JUNK FOOD VS. COVID-19: THE WINNER IS?”)
TRENDPOST: Among the ignorant moves made by political leaders at the beginning of the coronavirus spread was the shutting down of playgrounds and parks. The 19 February Wall Street Journal article with the headline,
Remote Learning During COVID-19 Is Causing Children to Gain Weight, Doctors Warn
features a large photograph from last April of a Michigan town’s closed playground, surrounded by large, yellow “Caution” tape.
As we keep reporting, the recovery rate of those aged 1 to 20 who catch the virus is 99.997 percent, yet governments are locking down youngsters and depriving them of their natural rights of growing up and living life.
As the data proves, since the COVID War began a year ago, just 92 children aged 1 to 14 have died from the virus.
Yet, the lockdown lunacy prevails.