A Voice to the Silenced

Lest we forget PART 4 as published by UK Column.

“No one has taken responsibility or is likely to be held accountable for the harm inflicted on them, which in many cases was intentional harm, knowing that it would cause harm”. Monye Anyadike Danes KC, on behalf of the N. Ireland Children’s Commissioner.

Why is no one likely to be held accountable? Is it because so many voices have been silenced? PART 4 gives a voice to the educators, teachers, carers, and counsellors.

Part 3 gave a voice to the parents, Part 4 gives a voice to the educators.

“My haunting fears for children and young people grew exponentially by the day after the first lockdown was announced. I could hardly bear to imagine what would be going on in millions of households around the country. Isolated at home, callously abandoned by the institutions that oversee their welfare, locked in with abusive and/or stressed-out parents.

I watched and witnessed it all with a growing sense of horror and isolation. My fellow human beings are turning into robotic, fearful, face-covering cowards, putting their safety ahead of children, using them as human shields”. Sarah Waters, a certified psychotherapist and therapeutic parenting practitioner.

Parts 1 and 2 had set out the evidence showing what “they” knew and where “our men” stood:

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy”. Martin Luther King.

“Children were forgotten by policymakers during Covid lockdowns.”- a study by University College, London finds. The study found that politicians did not consider children and young people a “priority group” when English lockdowns were enforced.

One of the reasons for this series is to try to ensure that this does not happen again

Another one of the reasons why we must still talk about this is provided by Professor Bhattacharya “If the current configuration of power, public health and politics stands, with another pandemic, we are going to lock down again, guaranteed”. As we know, this configuration has changed in the US now that Professor Bhattacharya is Director of the US National Institutes of Health, but it has not changed in Europe.

And another by Professor Carl Heneghan who succinctly provided the rationale behind the series in 2022:

We believe that we must record as much as possible of what went on for posterity, hoping that the catastrophic mistakes are not repeated in future. In this way, the suffering will not have been in vain. The effects of lockdown, now becoming clearer by the day, should never be forgotten.