Beth Palmer was 17 and dreaming of becoming a singer in March 2020 when the United Kingdom went into lockdown because of COVID-19. One month later, she was dead.
“She was a wonderful, wonderful daughter. She was just funny, she lit up the room,” said Mike Palmer, Beth’s father. “She was so affectionate and loving as well. She basically had the world at her feet. She had everything, everything to live for.”
Palmer didn’t die of COVID-19. She took her own life.
An aspiring singer and vocal student at the Access Creative College in Manchester, Palmer crumbled in isolation. Her family states that she had previously shown no signs of struggling with her mental health. However, she claimed the mandated stay-at-home order felt like centuries.
“She couldn’t finish college, she couldn’t go out and see her friends. She felt as though this three-month lockdown was to her 300 years,” her father said in a video that went viral last year.
Unable to finish college, see her friends, or pursue her passion, the usually vivacious and affectionate Palmer became obsessive in her fear that the lockdown would never end.
In the weeks following her death, Palmer’s family spoke out on the implications of the stay-at-home order and to warn parents of the struggles their children might be facing, saying “no one should feel isolated enough to do this.”
Tragically, new government data show Palmer’s death is part of a global trend of teens seeking to escape the toll of government lockdown.
Troubling CDC Data
Newly released data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reveal a surge in self-harm and hospitalizations from poor mental health among teens in 2020.
Overall, the number of psychiatric-related hospital visits among young people increased 31 percent last year. For young women like Palmer, this number was far more grievous. Suspected suicide attempts in girls increased 50.6 percent, compared to a 3.7 percent increase in young men.
As the report concludes, the implications of lockdowns, such as “physical distancing; barriers to mental health treatment; increases in substance use; and anxiety about family health and economic problems” all particularly affected children, contributing to a widespread increase in suicidal thoughts.
A recent Wall Street Journal article completes the picture painted by the CDC by revealing that in California, teenage suicide increased 24 percent, leading to 134 deaths in 2020. In contrast, only 23 California minors died of COVID-19.
Specifically, in Oakland, hospitals saw a 66 percent increase in teenagers screening positive for suicidal ideation between March and October 2020.
In light of these alarming numbers, California public-health officials are finally beginning to speak out about this issue.
For more than a year, while mental illness and suicides skyrocketed, these same politicians and health experts continuously disregarded valid concerns over the dire implications of lockdowns.
It’s clear that though they weren’t generally at risk for COVID-19, young people such as Palmer were a high suicide risk group, and the government failed to pay attention.
A Brutal Teacher
“Experience,” the French economist Frédéric Bastiat (1801–1850) once wrote, “teaches effectually, but brutally.” Tragically, this seems to be the case with the unintended consequences of COVID-19 lockdowns.
The surge in teen suicide is just one example of collateral damage from lockdowns—others include surges in child poverty, drug overdoses, and unemployment, as well as a sharp decline in cancer screenings—and should come as no surprise.
In April 2020, JAMA Psychiatry published a report on the possible consequences of quarantine orders, stating that while they might help quell new infections, “the potential for adverse outcomes on suicide risk is high.”
Amid the warnings, public health officials pressed on, believing their policies would protect people from COVID-19. An abundance of empirical evidence, however, suggests these efforts failed.
The road to hell, they say, is paved with good intentions. And for good reason. The world is complex, and efforts to reshape it often achieve results other than that which was intended. That’s precisely why Bastiat taught about the importance of exercising restraint and foresight while implementing policy, so that we don’t pursue “a small present good, which will be followed by a great evil to come.”
This was something governments didn’t do in 2020.
Beth Palmer had a promising life ahead of her. She and the other teenagers who struggled to cope with state-enforced isolation deserved better. So let’s at least learn something from the brutal experience of lockdowns.
Brett Cooper is a professional actress and a libertarian-conservative writer. She’s an ambassador for PragerU and TurningPoint USA and content manager at Unwoke Narrative. This article was originally published on FEE.org
New Conservative Network Seeks Crowdfunding Help
They say we have to go big or go home. We’re trying to go big and bring the patriotic truth the the nation, but we need help.
Readers may or may not realize that over the past year, we’ve been bringing more conservative news and opinion outlets under our wing. Don’t take our expansion as a sign of riches; all of the “acquisitions” have been through sweat and promises of greater things to come for all involved. As a result, we’ve been able to bring together several independent media sites under a unified vision of preventing America from succumbing to the progressive, “woke,” Neo-Marxist ideologies that are spreading like wildfire across America.
The slow and steady reopening of America is revealing there was a lot more economic hardship brought about from the Covd-19 lockdowns than most realize. While we continue to hope advertising dollars on the sites go up, it’s simply not enough to do things the right way. We are currently experiencing a gap between revenue and expenses that cannot be overcome by click-ads and MyPillow promos alone (promo code “NOQ” by the way).
To overcome our revenue gap and keep these sites running, our needs fluctuate between $3000-$7000 per month. In other words, we’re in the red and hemorrhaging.
The best way you can help us grow and continue to bring the truth to the people is by donating. We appreciate everything, whether a dollar or $10,000. Anything brings us closer to a point of stability when we can hire writers, editors, and support staff to make the America First message louder. Our Giving Fuel page makes it easy to donate one-time or monthly. Alternatively, you can donate through PayPal as well.
As the world spirals towards radical progressivism, the need for truthful journalism has never been greater. But in these times, we need as many conservative media voices as possible. Please help keep NOQ Report and the other sites in the network going.
Thank you and God Bless,
JD Rucker
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Will America-First News Outlets Make it to 2023?
Things are looking grim for conservative and populist news sites.
There’s something happening behind the scenes at several popular conservative news outlets. 2021 was bad, but 2022 is proving to be disastrous for news sites that aren’t “playing ball” with the corporate media narrative. It’s being said that advertisers are cracking down, forcing some of the biggest ad networks like Google and Yahoo to pull their inventory from conservative outlets. This has had two major effects. First, it has cooled most conservative outlets from discussing “taboo” topics like Pandemic Panic Theater, voter fraud, or The Great Reset. Second, it has isolated those ad networks that aren’t playing ball.
Certain topics are anathema for most ad networks. Speaking out against vaccines or vaccine mandates is a certain path to being demonetized. Highlighting voter fraud in the 2020 and future elections is another instant advertising death penalty. Throw in truthful stories about climate change hysteria, Critical Race Theory, and the border crisis and it’s easy to understand how difficult it is for America-First news outlets to spread the facts, share conservative opinions, and still pay the bills.
Without naming names, I have been told of several news outlets who have been forced to either consolidate with larger organizations or who have backed down on covering certain topics out of fear of being “canceled” by the ad networks. I get it. This is a business for many of us and it’s not very profitable. Those of us who do this for a living are often barely squeaking by, so loss of additional revenue can often mean being forced to make cuts. That means not being able to cover the topics properly. Its a Catch-22: Tell the truth and lose the money necessary to keep telling the truth, or avoid the truth and make enough money to survive. Those who have chosen survival simply aren’t able to spread the truth properly.
We will never avoid the truth. The Lord will provide if it is His will. Our job is simply to share the facts, spread the Gospel, and educate as many Americans as possible while exposing the forces of evil.
To those who have the means, we ask that you please donate. We have options available now, but there is no telling when those options will cancel us. We just launched a new GiveSendGo page. We also have our GivingFuel page. There have been many who have been canceled by PayPal, but for now it’s still an option. Your generosity is what keeps these sites running and allows us to get the truth to the masses. We’ve had great success in growing but we know we can do more with your assistance.
Thank you, and God Bless!
JD Rucker
