The Psychological Cost of Lockdown and Masking Policies on Children

This paper examines the psychological cost imposed on children and adolescents by the non-pharmaceutical interventions used during the COVID-19 pandemic, principally lockdowns, school closures and mask mandates. It argues that the risk communication surrounding SARS-CoV-2 systematically overstated the danger the virus posed to children, that this misinformation acted as an acute trigger for anxiety in children already biologically predisposed to it rather than a slow-burning stressor accumulating over years, and that the collateral damage of isolation, lost family contact, disrupted bereavement and reduced physical activity did measurable harm that is now documented in the peer-reviewed literature. It also reviews the Cochrane evidence on community masking and the surge in eating disorders, health anxiety and related conditions recorded during and after the pandemic period.