THE DOCTOR’S CORNER
Children Need Recovery from the COVID-19 Pandemic
NOVEMBER 2024
During the intense first two years of the COVID Pandemic, I attended Administrative School meetings on classroom strategies to prevent the passage of the COVID Contagion through the school system in Cabarrus County, North Carolina. As the Medical Director of the public health department, I weighed in on the two-edged sword of social distancing vs keeping the children in class to optimize academic rigor. This was especially difficult as the Alpha and Delta strains were lethal and people, especially adults, were dying in large part by the highly transmissible nature of these strains. As the third and less virulent strain, Omicron, came into being, the data on the welfare of children relative to the effects of social distancing and masking became ever more noxious and pointed to significant decay in academic testing results but just as importantly, a significant rise in childhood depression and anxiety.
I personally turned my bias toward bringing children back to the classroom to meet the dual needs of academic rigor and emotional healing. This debate over the disposition of school children was being argued throughout the country but one issue was near universally agreed upon: the children were suffering greatly from the isolation imposed on them by the social engineering of keeping children apart from the healthy interactive nature of the classroom. Children are by their very nature, gregarious and celebratory beings. Denied these community-based experiences the country suffered testing result drops and emotional detriments in the children which definitely still exist today. The American Academy of Arts and Sciences issued a report in JUNE of 2021 which stated amongst other things that “nearly all students have experienced some challenges to their mental health and well-being during the (COVID) pandemic and many have lost access to school-based services and supports.”
The report was highlighted in November of 2021 by the Chicago Tribune1 by John Lithgow an arts award-winning actor and author who stated that, “Arts Education… we believe that few things are as important to the emotional and intellectual health of our youth, who have been confined and held back by the COVID-19 lockdown.” Having your children participate in the Performing Arts will increase their sense of participatory gratification and self-confidence.
1Chicago Tribune, November 4, 2021: John Lithgow is a Golden Globe, Emmy and Tony Award-winning actor and author. Co-authors of this
article (The case for arts education is strong. Our commitment should be, too): Deborah Rutter is president of the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts. Natasha Trethewey is a professor of English at Northwestern University and a two-time U.S. Poet Laureate. (These positions of the three authors listed were from November 2021).
Dr. Russell Suda, Chief Medical Director of the Suda Institute, is a highly accomplished OB/GYN physician with a career spanning over four decades. He is board certified in Anatomic Pathology and Obstetrics and Gynecology.
His column, “The Doctor’s Corner,” will run quarterly on the Opera Is Awesome website and offers insights into the importance of engaging children in the world of the arts.
Dr. Suda received his bachelor’s degree in biology at Washington University at St. Louis, and his medical degree from St. Louis University. He completed a three-year residence in Anatomic Pathology at the University of Missouri and a four-year OB-GYN residency at the Johns Hopkins Hospital.
The Suda Institute is dedicated to enhancing the lives of mothers, children, and families through the SUN (Substance Use Network) Project. His committed and unparalleled work has focused on developing a coordinated system of care involving Medicine, Behavioral Health, Pain Management and Social Services for pregnant women using narcotics (SUN Project: Substance Use Network) in Cabarrus, Rowan and Stanly Counties.