Column: Mental health, education, businesses all suffered under COVID restrictions

COVID-19 has been an unwelcome member of our ohana for the past two years. However, with Hawaii lifting its indoor mask mandates and travel restrictions (being the last state to do so), we may finally be saying goodbye.

Students are returning to campus, restaurants are fully reopening, and the number of new COVID-19 cases are dwindling. Many say that our community is becoming normal again. But is post-pandemic normalcy the same as our old normal?

Students are back on campus, yet their mental health is at an all-time low. Based on a national survey by Mental Health America, Hawaii has the highest percentage of survey participants who reported thinking about or planning suicide. Some restaurants reopened, though many others have permanently closed.

The mandates may have protected us from COVID-19 but did they protect us from everything else? Hawaii’s COVID-19 mandates were not worth the burdens they created because these mandates falsely assumed that the only health and wellbeing issue that mattered was the virus they struggled to keep under control.

Local business owners were one of the most affected groups in our community. In April 2020, the beloved diner Like Like Drive Inn permanently closed after 70 years of business due to COVID-19 policies temporarily shutting down dine-in services. Other cherished businesses followed the same path. Dillingham Saimin closed indefinitely after 64 years of business. Gecko Books and Comics had been serving the community for 30 years, only to close after the second shutdown.

Even after dine-in and other in-person services were reopened, business was slow, and strict, volatile requirements drove customers away. Local business owners were losing their main source of income, and local people ultimately lost a rich source of their community and history.

>> RELATED: Column: COVID restrictions saved lives, limited spread of virus

Many local business owners felt that not enough action was being taken to support their businesses. They reported that because of the temporary shutdowns, they now owed thousands of dollars to merely maintain their venues and keep their doors open, even with federal Paycheck Protection Program funding assistance. As a result of government mandates, with little to no monetary support following, many small and local businesses in Hawaii shut down while countless more struggle to stay afloat to this day.

Business owners weren’t the only population affected. Students struggled, even failed, to develop key communication, social and critical-thinking skills because of the social isolation, stress, and uncertainty COVID-19 mandates imposed.

This school year, while my classmates and I were teaching CPR to sophomores (who transitioned to high school virtually), my teacher attempted to chat with a group of sophomores. They ignored her questions. They didn’t even look at her, instead staring at the wall ahead of them. This short, awkward exchange spoke volumes to the failure of learned social behaviors or communication etiquette.

This failure is also reflected in their education. According to the state Department of Education’s 2020-2021 Strive HI Performance System, overall statewide academic proficiency in language arts decreased by 4% and in math by 11%. Time is a precious resource, and for these students, two years of social and mental development were lost amidst a blank Zoom screen and a silent chatbox.

In one light, the COVID-19 mandates were effective. The number of new cases decreased, and we are slowly returning to the way things were. However, we cannot and must not forget what has been lost. In many ways, we emerge as both a stronger and weaker society. We have lost critical parts of our community, and much is left to be recovered. Our government implemented the mandates without realizing the price they came with. Why should that price fall upon us to pay?

———

Erin Song is a McKinley High School student, class of 2022.

“Raise Your Hand,” a monthly column featuring Hawaii’s youth and their perspectives, appears in the Insight section on the first Sunday of each month. It is facilitated by the Center for Tomorrow’s Leaders (www.CTLhawaii.org).