Somehow, one still sees comments from people who seem oblivious of the effects that our anti-COVID measures are having on children.  College professor Glenn Reynolds mentions the experience on his campus:

I was talking to a couple of freshman advisors from UT, and they noted that our freshmen had crucial years of their educations and development done online, which leaves them socially and intellectually behind in many ways. And the mental health problems, already bad pre-pandemic, are much worse.

This is in response to worries from the U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy that the experience of the COVID years has amplified a trend that was already underway.  That this is not a bigger part of the conversation in Rhode Island and elsewhere shows either that the COVID response is mostly political or that, deep down, the people making decisions don’t believe they’re up to the challenge of making real tradeoffs in the face of real risks.