CBS News correspondent Jan Crawford slammed restrictive coronavirus policies, highlighting the negative impact they have had on children around the country since the start of the pandemic.
In a Sunday appearance on CBS's "Face the Nation," Crawford said that the "crushing" COVID policies can be attributed to several issues children are facing today, including the ongoing mental health crisis, an uptick in suicide rates and learning loss that resulted from school closures.
"My kids hear me rant about this everyday, so I may as well tell you guys. It's the crushing impact that our COVID policies have had on young kids and children, by far the least serious risk for serious illness," Crawford said when asked what she believed to be the most underreported news story of 2021.
“They will be paying for our generation’s decisions the rest of their lives”: @JanCBS explains why she thinks 2021's biggest underreported story was the devastating impact of COVID policies on children pic.twitter.com/AUU1f6AFNi
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) December 26, 2021
She said that healthy teenagers have "a one-in-a-million chance" of becoming infected and dying from COVID-19 and pointed out that they are more likely to die from a car accident than from the virus.
"They have suffered and sacrificed the most, especially kids in underrepresented, at-risk communities. And now we have the surgeon general saying there's a mental health crisis among our kids," Crawford said. "The risk of suicide attempts among girls now up 51% this year. Black kids nearly twice as likely as white kids to die by suicide."
"I mean school closures, lockdowns, cancellation of sports. You couldn't even go on a playground in the D.C. area without cops shooing the kids off," she continued. "Tremendous negative impact on kids, and it's been an afterthought. It's hurt their dreams, their future, learning loss, risk of abuse, their mental health."
Crawford, noting knowledge about vaccines, said that children, for the rest of their lives, would be suffering the consequences of policies made by those currently in charge if policies do not begin to reflect "a more measured and reasonable approach" for youth.