The share of the American <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/jobs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">workforce</a> composed of foreign-born workers rose to record levels last year, a phenomenon which comes as <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/immigration" target="_blank" rel="noopener">immigration</a> surges in the wake of worldwide <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/lockdowns" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lockdowns</a> and as the nation’s <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/economy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">economy</a> grapples with <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/labor-shortage" target="_blank" rel="noopener">labor shortages</a>.
Workers born in other nations comprised 18.1% of the workforce in 2022, according to <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/forbrn.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">data</a> released last week by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, marking an increase from 17.4% in 2021. Hispanics account for nearly half of the foreign-born labor force, while Asians account for one-quarter of the foreign-born labor force. Average weekly earnings for foreign-born workers were $945 last year, while weekly earnings for their native-born counterparts were $1,087.
Native-born workers were more likely than foreign-born workers to hold positions in management, professional, and sales occupations, while the latter were more likely to work in service, natural resources, construction, logistics, and maintenance. Labor force participation among native-born males was 66.0% compared to 77.4% for foreign-born men.
The heightened level of foreign-born workers as a share of the overall workforce occurs as the United States and other nations reverse public health mandates that slowed immigration and temporary residency. One <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/12/01/after-declining-early-in-the-covid-19-outbreak-immigrant-naturalizations-in-the-u-s-are-rising-again/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">analysis</a> from Pew Research Center found that there has been a rise in “the number of immigrants receiving green cards as new lawful permanent residents, as well as a partial rebound in arrivals by foreign students, tourists, and other lawful temporary migrants.”
Illegal immigration has meanwhile <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-heads-to-beach-after-shattering-all-time-record-with-83000-illegal-aliens-storming-border-in-1-week" target="_blank" rel="noopener">soared</a> to record levels over the past two years: as many as 5.5 million migrants have crossed into the United States under the Biden administration, according to <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/fair-analysis-5-5-million-illegal-aliens-have-crossed-our-borders-since-biden-took-officehow-is-secretary-mayorkas-still-employed-301658734.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">data</a> from the Federation for American Immigration Reform. Critics of immigration policies forwarded by the White House have asserted that lackluster emphasis on securing the border and increased resources for migrants who enter the country have worsened the crisis.
Several cities and at least one state <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/leading-republicans-decry-biden-border-crisis-as-title-42-ends" target="_blank" rel="noopener">declared</a> emergencies this month as officials prepare for the conclusion of Title 42, a statute which permitted authorities to quickly turn away migrants at the southern border on public health grounds. Large groups of illegal immigrants have been recorded amassing at the border and seeking to enter the country between ports of entry.
The labor market over the past three years has widely been considered a bright spot in an otherwise dismal economic landscape marked by record inflation and persistent supply chain bottlenecks. Low labor force participation across the economy, on the other hand, has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/americans-continue-to-opt-out-of-the-workforce" target="_blank" rel="noopener">worsened</a> both trends as businesses raise wages to fill their payrolls and attract or retain more workers. Excess retirements amid the lockdown-induced recession have been <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/federal-reserve-chair-jerome-powell-discusses-future-slowdown-of-rate-hikes" target="_blank" rel="noopener">identified</a> as a factor contributing to decreased labor force participation.
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There were 30.0 million foreign-born workers in the United States as of last month, according to <a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LNU02073395" target="_blank" rel="noopener">data</a> from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, eclipsing the 27.7 million workers counted in the month before the lockdowns and significantly surpassing 22.0 million workers three years ago. There were meanwhile 131.1 million native-born workers last month, according to more <a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LNU02073413" target="_blank" rel="noopener">data</a>, a figure which remains below levels recorded before the recession.
Foreign-born workers composed some 15.0% of the workforce in 2005, according to more <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/forbrn_04142006.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">data</a> from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Restaurant

Foreign-Born Workers Now Make Up Nearly One-Fifth Of American Workforce

Foreign-Born Adults Now Make Up Almost One-Fifth Of American Workforce

Economy

Immigration

Jobs

Lockdowns

U.S.

Unemployment

Membership in the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/southern-baptists" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Southern Baptist Convention</a> witnessed the largest single-year decline in at least a century as the nation reels from the aftermath of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/lockdowns" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lockdown</a> mandates and pastors become concerned about the denomination’s theologically <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/woke" target="_blank" rel="noopener">liberal</a> drift.
The nation’s largest Protestant denomination saw a decline from 13.7 million members in 2021 to 13.2 million members in 2022, a decrease of more than 3% which continues the trajectory seen over the last three years, according to <a href="https://research.lifeway.com/2023/05/09/southern-baptists-decline-in-membership-grow-in-attendance-baptisms/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">data</a> released by Lifeway Research, a provider of church business services for the Southern Baptist Convention.
“Much of the downward movement we are seeing in membership reflects people who stopped participating in an individual congregation years ago and the record keeping is finally catching up,” Lifeway Research Executive Director Scott McConnell said in a statement. “Membership totals for a congregation immediately reflect additions as well as subtractions due to death or someone removing themselves from membership. But many congregations are slow to remove others who no longer are participating.”
Even as the number of baptisms and the amount of giving increased from the previous year, the Southern Baptist Convention is now composed of 416 fewer churches between 2021 and 2022. Unlike other more centralized denominations, the Southern Baptist Convention is a voluntary association of autonomous churches which fund seminaries, missionary efforts, and publications as they <a href="https://bfm.sbc.net/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">adhere</a> to the Baptist Faith and Message statement of doctrinal convictions.
Lockdowns contributed to a broader decline of religiosity in the United States as many congregants never <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/wheat-and-chaff-a-three-year-post-mortem-on-evangelical-church-attendance" target="_blank" rel="noopener">returned</a> to traditional worship services. Church attendance has fallen to 85% of pre-lockdown levels in Protestant denominations even after nearly every church in the country resumed normal operations, according to another <a href="https://research.lifeway.com/2022/11/08/churches-are-open-but-still-recovering-from-pandemic-attendance-losses/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">study</a> from Lifeway Research.
Those who continued to profess Christianity became increasingly theologically liberal in their beliefs: a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/from-the-inspiration-of-scripture-to-gender-identity-evangelicalism-sees-a-massive-leftward-shift" target="_blank" rel="noopener">survey</a> from Ligonier Ministries found that the share of self-identified evangelicals who believe “gender identity is a matter of choice” rose from 22% to 37% between 2020 and 2022, while the share who believe “the Bible’s condemnation of homosexual behavior doesn’t apply today” more than doubled from 11% to 28% over the same time horizon.
Record decline in Southern Baptist Convention membership occurs as hundreds of pastors throughout the country notice the liberal direction of the denomination. The trend is perhaps most palpable at the institutional level: Southern Baptist Convention President Bart Barber and other leaders have faced <a href="https://americanreformer.org/2023/04/mr-smith-goes-to-the-convention/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">criticism</a> for neglecting to rebuke the dozens of churches which have <a href="https://gk2611.p3cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Churches-with-Female-Pastors-from-churches.sbc_.net_-2.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">installed</a> female pastors, a practice denounced in the Baptist Faith and Message.
Officials at the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, the denomination’s public policy arm, meanwhile <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/southern-baptist-ethics-arm-doubles-down-on-support-for-tennessee-red-flag-law-despite-pushback" target="_blank" rel="noopener">endorsed</a> a red flag law in Tennessee months after they <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/pro-life-lobbying-groups-issue-letter-against-charging-women-with-crimes-for-seeking-abortions" target="_blank" rel="noopener">opposed</a> a bill in Louisiana that would have criminalized abortion for all parties involved, even though Southern Baptists passed a <a href="https://www.sbc.net/resource-library/resolutions/on-abolishing-abortion/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">resolution</a> affirming that “the murder of preborn children is a crime against humanity that must be punished equally under the law” the previous summer. Former Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission President Russell Moore said three years ago that ministers should <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/how-the-federal-government-used-evangelical-leaders-to-spread-covid-propaganda-to-churches" target="_blank" rel="noopener">persuade</a> church members to accept vaccination and wear face masks.
The Daily Wire reviewed several emails from concerned former Southern Baptist Convention pastors sent to Mike Law, a minister at Arlington Baptist Church in Virginia, who had contacted thousands of pastors to garner support for his <a href="https://sbcamendment.org/home-2/why-now/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">efforts</a> to address the female pastor phenomenon. Many of the churches represented by the pastors have left the denomination in recent months.
“You can take our church off your mailing list,” one pastor replied. “We do not support the socialist movement that has infiltrated the convention and are no longer a member.”
“Our congregation is no longer in the SBC because of their liberal stances on this and their support in fighting an abolition bill in Louisiana,” another minister said. “I pray along with you that the SBC leadership would be convicted by your efforts and the many churches like us who are stepping away,” added a third pastor.
“We truly appreciate your efforts to uphold the Bible. I’m just letting you know that our church voted to leave the SBC this past summer,” commented a fourth. “We felt that this issue was just one that should have been addressed in 2022. There were other issues, so we chose to become non-denominational and break from the SBC.”
Controversy over the ordination of women in the Southern Baptist Convention emerged last year as Rick Warren, the founding pastor of Saddleback Church in California, selected a husband and wife team to replace him at the megachurch after his retirement, drawing rebukes from veteran conservative ministers. The congregation was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/southern-baptists-disfellowship-saddleback-church-over-female-pastor" target="_blank" rel="noopener">disfellowshipped</a> from the denomination earlier this year, a move which Warren will be permitted to appeal next month.

Church Steeple

SBC Sees Largest One-Year Membership Decline In A Century, Churches Leave Due To Liberal Drift

SBC Witnesses Largest Single-Year Membership Decline In A Century, Pastors Grow Concerned Over Liberal Drift

Christianity

Southern Baptists

Wokeness

The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/air-travel" target="_blank" rel="noopener">airline</a> industry in the United States will see a worsening pilot <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/jobs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">shortage</a> in the coming years as airmen retire and insufficient numbers of trainees are available to replace them, experts told members of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on Wednesday.
Commercial pilots were encouraged by their employers to retire as worldwide <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/lockdowns" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lockdowns</a> and public health mandates caused demand for air travel to plummet in the spring of 2020, worsening a previous trend toward a lack of available pilots. Elevated <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/inflation" target="_blank" rel="noopener">prices</a> for airline tickets and a rapid return in travel demand are now prompting lawmakers to consider the problem.
Regional Airline Association CEO Faye Malarkey Black <a href="https://docs.house.gov/meetings/PW/PW05/20230419/115681/HHRG-118-PW05-Wstate-BlackF-20230419.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> members of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee that the airline sector expects another “tsunami of pilot retirements” in the coming years. More than 50% of current commercial pilots will be forced to retire within the next 15 years because of Federal Aviation Administration rules mandating that pilots exit their positions once they reach 65 years of age, while only 8% of pilots are below 30 years of age because of the high cost of flight education.
One <a href="https://www.oliverwyman.com/our-expertise/insights/2021/mar/after-covid-19-aviation-faces-a-pilot-shortage.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">analysis</a> from consulting group Oliver Wyman predicts that there will exist a shortage of 60,000 pilots by the end of the decade. United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby said in an earnings <a href="https://seekingalpha.com/article/4570709-united-airlines-holdings-inc-ual-q4-2022-earnings-call-transcript" target="_blank" rel="noopener">call</a> earlier this year that the firm, which will hire 8,000 pilots this year alongside Delta, Southwest, and American, believes that “pilots are and will remain a significant constraint on capacity.”
House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Sam Graves (R-MO), a general aviation pilot, said in his <a href="https://transportation.house.gov/calendar/eventsingle.aspx?EventID=406262" target="_blank" rel="noopener">opening remarks</a> that “pilot training has remained static over the years.” He added that another current rule from the Federal Aviation Administration requiring pilots to have completed 1,500 hours of flight experience before flying a commercial airliner should be reconsidered because “the number of flight hours you have are not a reflection of what kind of pilot you are,” as evidenced by a study from the agency.
“In our system, pilots with around 250 hours, typically very structured hours, come out of flight school and are left to bridge the gap to 1,500 hours,” Graves said. “Only a few of those hours have any kind of requirements associated with them, and even then, they can almost all be logged on sunny, clear days. I’m not convinced that taking kids out of flight school and telling them to tow banners, train students, or bore holes in the sky while racking up debt produces the best pilots.”
FlightSafety International CEO Brad Thress <a href="https://docs.house.gov/meetings/PW/PW05/20230419/115681/HHRG-118-PW05-Wstate-ThressB-20230419.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> lawmakers that simulators can provide pilots with experience while saving costs and offering a wider array of flight scenarios. “Allowing credit for simulator training for each rating on the ladder to becoming a professional pilot would make high-quality simulator experience an implicit part of the development of commercial pilots,” he contended. “Increasing the maximum amount of credit for simulator training to a larger portion of a pilot’s flight experience would have a significant positive impact on the safety of our industry.”
Pilot shortages and elevated fuel expenses have contributed to rising airfare in the United States: ticket prices have increased nearly 18% year-over-year, according to <a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CUSR0000SETG01" target="_blank" rel="noopener">data</a> from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
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Proposals from Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) would <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/lawmakers-introduce-bill-with-key-reform-to-stop-flight-cancellations" target="_blank" rel="noopener">increase</a> the commercial pilot retirement age from 65 to 67 to ease staffing pressures, a move which Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg opposes. “The answer is not to keep the Baby Boomer generation in the cockpit indefinitely,” he <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/buttigieg-slams-airlines-for-flight-cancellations-but-rejects-key-reform" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> last summer. “The answer is to make sure we have as many and as good pilots ready to take their place, to have a stronger pipeline.”

United

A ‘Tsunami’ Of Commercial Pilot Retirements Is Coming, Experts Warn Congress

A 'Tsunami' Of Commercial Pilot Retirements Is Coming

Air Travel

Inflation

Millions of people left major cities in the United States between 2020 and 2022, years dominated by government <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/lockdowns" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lockdown</a> policies and elevated <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/crime" target="_blank" rel="noopener">crime</a> rates, according to an <a href="https://eig.org/2022-county-population-trends/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">analysis</a> released last week by the Economic Innovation Group.
Domestic outmigration from large urban counties reached 1.2 million residents in 2021 and 861,000 residents in 2022, implying that more than two million people moved from large cities in recent years. The trend contributed to a population surge in the suburbs and exurbs, which saw 486,000 and 822,000 new residents, respectively, between 2020 and 2022.
Increased rates of immigration from outside of the United States, however, added 507,000 residents to large cities in 2022, an increase from 186,000 residents in 2021 as worldwide travel restrictions eased. “Though large urban counties have not yet rebounded from large population outflows experienced in 2020 and 2021, they did nearly halt overall population loss in 2022, buoyed by more normal rates of international migration,” the analysts summarized.
Individuals who took advantage of remote work policies appear to have accelerated the domestic migration phenomena even as constrained housing markets likely slowed the trends.
“We find work-from-home related fundamentals remained important drivers of population shifts in 2022 but less than they were in 2021. One reason may be that the shift to remote work early in the pandemic was a one-time shock and this led to a one-time, temporary change in migration patterns, which are now converging towards normal,” the analysts said. “Alternatively, remote work may have an impact on migration patterns that will take a longer time to unfold. In this case, the weaker relationship with work-from-home fundamentals may be due to housing supply becoming a more binding constraint to work-from-home-driven population shifts.”
Lockdown mandates caused low labor force participation and supply chain bottlenecks, worsening already lackluster levels of new construction for residential real estate. Median home sale prices increased from $322,600 in the second quarter of 2020 to $467,700 in the fourth quarter of 2022, according to <a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MSPUS" target="_blank" rel="noopener">data</a> from the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Data released by the Census Bureau at the end of last month <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/here-are-the-fastest-growing-and-fastest-shrinking-counties-in-america" target="_blank" rel="noopener">demonstrate</a> that counties home to major cities in California, Illinois, and New York witnessed the nation’s most stark numeric population decline last year, while those home to major cities in Arizona, Texas, and Florida saw the largest numeric population growth. Los Angeles County, California, lost more residents than any other county in the United States as the population fell by 91,000 between July 2021 and July 2022. Cook County, Illinois, whose county seat is Chicago, saw its population decrease by 68,000 over the same time horizon.
Population trends correspond with the cities and states which enforced aggressive lockdown mandates. California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom only <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/gov-newsom-officially-ends-covid-state-of-emergency-after-three-years" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reversed</a> the state of emergency established amid the spread of COVID as late as February 2023, while Chicago Democratic Mayor Lori Lightfoot <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/chicago-mayor-lori-lightfoots-heavy-hand-vaccine-free-your-time-is-up" target="_blank" rel="noopener">informed</a> unvaccinated residents as late as December 2021 that their “time is up” and said her health mandates were “inconvenient by design.”
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Elevated violent crime and property crime rates in American cities have contributed to an exodus of businesses and residents. The phenomenon has continued into 2023: Walmart announced this week that the firm would <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/walmart-closes-four-stores-in-chicago-amid-elevated-crime-rates" target="_blank" rel="noopener">shutter</a> four stores in Chicago, while Whole Foods unveiled the forthcoming <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/san-franciscos-flagship-whole-foods-closes-after-only-one-year-due-to-high-crime-report" target="_blank" rel="noopener">closure</a> of the organic grocer’s flagship location in San Francisco.

Oakland, California

Two Million People Bolted From America’s Major Cities Since The Lockdowns

Millions Of People Bolted From America's Large Cities Between 2020 And 2022

Census Bureau

Crime

General

Population

Residents of <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/california" target="_blank" rel="noopener">California</a> witnessed the lowest personal income growth in the nation last year as the state recovered from aggressive <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/lockdowns" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lockdowns</a> and an exodus of citizens and <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/business" target="_blank" rel="noopener">businesses</a>.
California saw net earnings, defined as income from a place of work minus welfare, increase 5.0% between 2021 and 2022 compared to the national average of 8.0%, according to <a href="https://www.bea.gov/sites/default/files/2023-03/stgdppi4q22-a2022.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">data</a> released last week by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Other states that severely trailed the national average included Maryland, which saw a 5.5% increase, and New Hampshire, which saw a 6.0% increase.
Net earnings meanwhile saw a 12.5% increase in Idaho, an 11.5% increase in Texas, a 10.8% increase in Nevada, and a 10.7% increase in both Florida and Arkansas.
The earnings data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis largely corresponds with patterns established over the past three years related to the lockdown regimes enacted by state and local officials: while states in the northeastern and western United States continued to shutter businesses well after COVID started to spread through the nation, states in the southern and midwestern United States reversed their mandates far more quickly.
Texas, Arizona, Idaho, and Utah, all of which boasted some of the strongest net earnings increases in the nation last year, were also among the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/four-red-states-recover-all-pre-recession-jobs-as-many-blue-states-are-still-lagging-behind" target="_blank" rel="noopener">first</a> to see full labor market recovery following COVID and the lockdown-induced recession. Statewide increases in gross domestic product, which were highest in Idaho at 4.9%, followed a similar pattern as western and northeastern states fell behind their counterparts.
The Hoover Institution, a conservative think tank at Stanford University, found in a <a href="https://www.hoover.org/research/california-business-exits-soared-2021-and-there-no-end-sight" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> that businesses departed from California twice as fast in 2021 compared to the rate in 2020 and 2019, as well as three times as fast as the rate in 2018. Texas is the most popular state for relocations, while prominent California employers such as Apple, Wells Fargo, and Disney opted to build new office spaces in Texas and Florida.
“California state and local economic policies have raised business costs to levels that are so high businesses are choosing to leave behind the many economic benefits of being in California and move to states with better business climates featuring much less regulation, much lower taxes, and lower living costs,” the Hoover Institution noted. “Our head count of headquarters departures is almost certainly far too low, since most business relocations are not reported by the media, and relatively few relocations require filing state compliance reports that would trigger documentation of the exit.”
With an effective tax rate of 13.5%, California is among the most heavily taxed states in the country, according to an <a href="https://taxfoundation.org/publications/state-local-tax-burden-rankings/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">analysis</a> from the Tax Foundation. The state has more severe business tax burdens than all but two other states, according to another <a href="https://taxfoundation.org/2023-state-business-tax-climate-index/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">analysis</a> from the organization.
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Population trends correspond with the economic climates of lockdown states. California <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/california-lost-more-residents-than-any-other-state-in-2022-u-s-census-bureau" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lost</a> more residents than any other state last year, marking the third consecutive year in which the state’s population decreased. Counties in California, Illinois, and New York, especially those with major cities, also <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/here-are-the-fastest-growing-and-fastest-shrinking-counties-in-america" target="_blank" rel="noopener">saw</a> the largest numeric population declines.
California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom only <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/gov-newsom-officially-ends-covid-state-of-emergency-after-three-years" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reversed</a> the state of emergency established amid the spread of COVID two months ago. Beyond their effects on businesses, critics of the aggressive lockdowns in California noted their impact on churches, schools, and other institutions.

California Gov. Newsom And West Coast Leaders Sign Climate Agreement

California Saw Worst Personal Income Growth In The Nation Last Year

California Sees Worst Personal Income Growth In The Nation

Business

California

The government-imposed COVID lockdowns wreaked havoc on America&#8217;s youth emotionally, mentally, and educationally. Now, new data shows that child gun-related fatalities and assaults skyrocketed in four major liberal cities from March 2020 to December 2021.
New data from Boston University <a href="https://whyy.org/articles/gun-violence-children-covid-19-jama-study/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">published</a> in the Journal of the American Medical Association shows that during the first two years of the pandemic, fatal and non-fatal gun assaults for minors increased from a rate of 30 per 100,000 to about 62 per 100,000 during the pandemic in Philadelphia alone. Meanwhile, the rates in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles also increased.
Black children in particular bore the brunt of these tragedies. Per <a href="https://whyy.org/articles/gun-violence-children-covid-19-jama-study/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the study</a>, black children were 100 times more likely than white children to be shot during this time. Based on the data, Philadelphia’s gun violence increased at a higher rate than its counterparts, PBS also <a href="https://whyy.org/articles/gun-violence-children-covid-19-jama-study/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>.  The authors of this study also did not include fatal shootings in Chicago, so the actual fatality rate is presumably much higher than the limited findings show.
This new information also comes after numerous studies showed other damaging consequences of the pandemic on children.
For example, in December, Stanford University published a <a href="https://www.bpsgos.org/article/S2667-1743(22)00142-2/fulltext" target="_blank" rel="noopener">study</a> showing that teenagers’ brains were physically altered and aged at an accelerated rate during the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/lockdowns" target="_blank" rel="noopener">COVID lockdowns</a>.
Researchers studied the brains of 163 adolescents in the San Francisco Bay Area who were already a part of a more intensive study “assessing the effects of early life stress on psychobiology across puberty.”
The study found that those 16-year-olds had brains that appeared “several years” older than 16-year-olds who were assessed before pandemic restrictions began. Those individuals also had more severe mental health problems.
Meanwhile, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/blue-vs-red-2022-test-scores-show-devastating-toll-of-school-shutdowns" target="_blank" rel="noopener">other reports</a> indicate that children in red states, who were more likely to have less time away from in-person instruction, are doing much better academically than their blue state counterparts, who were more likely to have online schooling during the pandemic.
<a class="c-link" href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-stringify-link="https://onelink.to/dwapp" data-sk="tooltip_parent" aria-describedby="sk-tooltip-30437">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP</a>
Many conservatives warned that such lockdowns would have devastating effects on American children even in early spring 2020. They were demonized for not &#8220;caring&#8221; about the youth.
Now, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/science/data-review/risk.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">claims</a> that &#8220;although children account for ~23% of the US population, they have accounted for ~0.1% of reported COVID-19 deaths.&#8221;
Based on ample evidence, can any leftist with a straight face honestly say that the &#8220;cure&#8221; — the lockdowns — really worse than the disease for kids?
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Flyers in support of the Chicago Teachers Union in front of a school closed after classes were canceled in Chicago, Illinois, U.S., on Monday, Jan. 10, 2022. Chicago Public Schools have been closed since Jan. 5 after Chicago teachers voted to shift back to remote learning, demanding that the district put in place more stringent protections amid a Covid-19 surge driven by the omicron variant.

Latest Evidence Lockdowns Were A Disaster: Child Shootings Skyrocketed In Four Liberal Cities

Chicago

COVID

Los Angeles

New York

Philadelphia

Shooting

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/united-kingdom" target="_blank" rel="noopener">British</a> Health Minister Matt Hancock wanted to “frighten the pants” off the nation to scare residents into compliance with a sweeping COVID <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/lockdowns" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lockdown</a> regime, according to more than 100,000 leaked messages among senior officials in the United Kingdom.
Former British Prime Minister <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/boris-johnson" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Boris Johnson</a> had vowed that citizens would be able to reunite with their loved ones during the Christmas season of 2020, leading to concerns among officials that the administration would receive backlash over continued lockdowns. Hancock, a fellow member of the Conservative Party, and Damon Poole, his media adviser, expressed frustration that complication with Brexit, the United Kingdom’s departure from the European Union, was “taking the top line” in the news and distracting from the danger of the virus.
The officials agreed to declare a new strain of COVID called Alpha or Kent, according to a <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/04/project-fear-covid-lockdown-files-matt-hancock-whatsapp/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> from The Telegraph. Isabel Oakeshott, a journalist who assisted Hancock with writing his <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Pandemic-Diaries-inside-Britains-against-ebook/dp/B0BBSVDX4M/ref=sr_1_1?crid=6IU6JDFSTYDF&amp;keywords=pandemic+diaries&amp;qid=1678201046&amp;s=digital-text&amp;sprefix=pandemic+diarie%2Cdigital-text%2C118&amp;sr=1-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">memoir</a> about the response to the pandemic, had leaked the communications to the outlet.
“Rather than doing too much forward signaling, we can roll pitch with the new strain,” Poole suggested on December 13, 2020. “We frighten the pants [off] everyone with the new strain,” Hancock replied, leading Poole to concur that the move “will get proper [behavior] change.”
Hancock then asked when they should “deploy the new variant.” Poole said that “we need to be more cautious” to avoid implicating schools in subsequent lockdowns.
As with many other nations, lockdowns and other public health mandates severely rocked the economy and societal well-being of the United Kingdom. Beyond a rapid <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/grossdomesticproductgdp/articles/gdpandeventsinhistoryhowthecovid19pandemicshockedtheukeconomy/2022-05-24" target="_blank" rel="noopener">collapse</a> in gross domestic product that immediately followed the lockdowns in the spring of 2020, inflation in the United Kingdom remains persistently high at 8.8% year-over-year due to supply chain disruptions, according to <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices#:~:text=Consumer%20price%20inflation%2C%20UK%3A%20January%202023&amp;text=The%20Consumer%20Prices%20Index%20including,from%209.2%25%20in%20December%202022." target="_blank" rel="noopener">data</a> from the Office of National Statistics.
Johnson and other officials started to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/boris-johnson-announces-uk-is-near-end-of-lockdowns-mask-wearing" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reverse</a> mask mandates and lockdowns as late as the summer of 2021. Conservative members of Parliament had nevertheless already grown skeptical of the mandates and balked at a plan to implement regional tiered lockdowns in December 2020. Hancock and Allan Nixon, a parliamentary adviser for the British Department of Health, sought to <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/06/secret-spreadsheet-targeted-mps-critical-lockdown/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">whip</a> votes in support of the tiered system, including the blockage of projects in the constituencies represented by noncompliant lawmakers.
One of those projects was a new center for children with learning disabilities in Bury, Greater Manchester, an area represented by Conservative lawmaker James Daly. Nixon <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/06/matt-hancocks-plan-block-funding-disabled-children-mp-opposed/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">suggested</a> that whips could “call him up” and inform him that the initiative would be “off the table if he rebels.”
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“These guys’ re-election hinges on us in a lot of instances, and we know what they want. We should seriously consider using it,” Nixon added. “Yes 100%,” Hancock replied.
Hancock also <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/05/matt-hancock-rejected-covid-self-isolation-advice/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">rejected</a> counsel from British Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty in November 2020 to replace the mandatory two-week COVID quarantine policy for individuals who tested positive for COVID and their contacts with five days of testing because the move would “imply we’ve been getting it wrong.” Hancock complained on November 17, 2020, that the new policy would seem like a “massive loosening,” even though Whitty informed him that models suggested five days of testing would be “pretty well as good.”
Between the day the message was sent and August 16, 2021, when exemptions from self-isolation were unveiled, some eight million people were marked as contacts of positive cases and told to quarantine. More than 20 million people had been told to self-isolate before the policy was entirely dropped in February 2022.
More messages <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/06/consultants-paid-total-1m-day-work-nhs-test-trace-leaks-reveal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">indicate</a> that external consultants were paid as much as £1 million, or $1.2 million, each day for more than one year to support an ailing Test and Trace system from the National Health Service. Hancock special adviser Emma Dean had been “nagging” the National Health Service about the runaway expenditures since November 2020, although the agency only announced that the Test and Trace initiative would be run with “an absolute minimum” of outside consultants as late as July 2022.
Hancock contended last week that there was “absolutely no public interest case” for the leak of his messages by Oakeshott, according to a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/mar/02/matt-hancock-calls-isabel-oakeshott-whatsapp-messages-leak-massive-betrayal" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> from The Guardian. “I am also sorry for the impact on the very many people, political colleagues, civil servants and friends, who worked hard with me to get through the pandemic and save lives,” he continued.
“What a ridiculous defense,” Oakeshott responded. “For someone who’s as intelligent as Matt Hancock to issue a statement saying there is no public interest in these revelations is patently absurd. And he knows that very well.”

Guests Arrive At BBC For Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg

British Lockdown Official Wanted To ‘Frighten The Pants’ Off Nation And Asked When To ‘Deploy The New Variant,’ Leaked Messages Show

British Lockdown Official Wanted To 'Frighten The Pants' Off Nation

COVID-19

United Kingdom

World

Remember when social media platforms forbade anyone from even suggesting that the COVID virus may have leaked from a lab in China that was studying coronaviruses?
Pepperidge Farm remembers.
But that was way back then. Now, much of the COVID narrative is falling apart — new studies have suggested that masks don&#8217;t work, lockdowns were ineffectual, the vaccine is now mostly ineffective, and the U.S. Energy Department says that it&#8217;s likely the Wuhan lab was the source of the virus.
One person who&#8217;s been following the whole saga is Bill Maher, host of HBO&#8217;s &#8220;Real Time.&#8221;
&#8220;I feel like the people who were the dissenters are looking pretty good. I was one of them,&#8221; Maher said during a panel discussion on his show Friday night. &#8220;I remember getting a lot of s*** from a lot of places.&#8221;
A guest on the show, comedian and Rumble host Russell Brand, jumped in, saying dissent &#8220;is a great duty around all topics&#8221; as he criticized those who are &#8220;too desperate to shut down a conversation.&#8221; That, he said, actually results in the &#8220;ironic&#8221; rejection of science and inquiry.
&#8220;The problem I feel that we had is that only experimentation was taking place that was beneficial to certain interests,&#8221; Brand said. &#8220;Only arguments were being advanced that were beneficial to certain interests. Only regulations were being imposed that were beneficial to certain interests.&#8221;
&#8220;The Wuhan lab leak theory being just one example — [top COVID official Dr. Anthony] Fauci himself was seriously considering that this was a likely origin for the virus,&#8221; the actor said.
&#8220;How could it not be a possibility?&#8221; Maher said incredulously. &#8220;It&#8217;s a lab in Wuhan where the virus started that studied the virus and was doing gain of function research on the virus. How could it not be?!&#8221;
Another guest on the show, liberal MSNBC analyst John Heilemann toed the party line, blaming former President Donald Trump for &#8220;politicizing&#8221; the issue and putting the lab-leak theory in doubt.
&#8220;If you go back to that time, why do people seize on the notion that they&#8217;ll reject the lab-leak theory? Because like everything else in COVID, Donald Trump politicized it from day one,&#8221; he said.
&#8220;His thing in that first two weeks was &#8216;kung flu.&#8217; And it was not just that it started in a lab, but then that the Chinese had released it on the world, that it was a bioweapon. This wasn&#8217;t a leak. It was just not like there was an accident in the lab. The notion that was put forward by the administration in some case was there was political interest to make China the villain,&#8221; Heilemann said.
But Maher pushed back. &#8220;So everybody else has to take his bait like that and double down on stupid?&#8221; he said.
Brand piled on, saying it wasn&#8217;t just Trump who politicized the virus.
&#8220;It seems that it&#8217;s not solely the responsibility of Donald Trump that this issue has become politicized. When we take the issue of natural immunity, the efficacy of masks, it&#8217;s difficult not to posit that perhaps increasingly a centralized authority becomes subject to inquiry that has never before face to because of the advancement of technology, because of our media ability to communicate, they are doubling down on authoritarianism,&#8221; Brand said.
Maher&#8217;s criticism follows that of Jon Stewart, a dyed-in-the-wool liberal who once hosted &#8220;The Daily Show.&#8221; He was roundly ripped by fellow liberals when he vehemently (and in a quite funny way) declared in June 2021 that the COVID virus emerged from a lab in Wuhan, China.
He felt vindicated when the U.S. Energy Department said this week the virus likely emerged from the lab.
&#8220;The larger problem with all of this is the inability to discuss things that are within the realm of possibility without falling into absolutes and litmus-testing each other for our political allegiances as it arose from that,&#8221; he said.
&#8220;My bigger problem with that was, I thought it was a pretty good bit that expressed kind of how I felt, and the two things that came out of it were, I’m racist against Asian people, and how dare I align myself with the alt-right,&#8221; Stewart said.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
Joseph Curl has covered politics for 35 years, including 12 years as White House correspondent for a national newspaper. He was also the a.m. editor of the Drudge Report for four years. Send tips to josephcurl@dailywire.com and follow him on Twitter @josephcurl.

Celebrity Sightings In Los Angeles – January 18, 2017

COVID ‘Dissenters Are Looking Pretty Good,’ Bill Maher Says

COVID 'Dissenters Are Looking Pretty Good,' Bill Maher Says

Bill Maher

Jon Stewart

Researchers examined the efficacy of citywide COVID vaccine mandates implemented across the United States in 2021 and found — meh.
“These mandates imposed severe restrictions on the lives of many citizens and business owners,” the researchers said in a study conducted by George Mason University’s Mercatus Center. “Yet, we find no evidence that the mandates were effective in their intended goals of reducing COVID-19 cases and deaths.”
The researchers evaluated New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago, New Orleans, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C.
“We find no evidence that the announcement or implementation of indoor vaccine mandates in the cities listed had any significant effect on vaccine uptake, COVID-19 cases, or COVID-19 deaths, and this is largely consistent for all US cities that implemented the mandate,” the researchers <a href="https://www.mercatus.org/research/working-papers/indoor-vaccine-mandates-and-covid-19">wrote</a>.
When COVID first appeared on our shores in early winter 2020, leaders of big cities — almost invariably Democrats — enacted major lockdowns, forcing businesses to close and shutting down entertainment and sports venues. They also ordered everyone to wear masks. When vaccines were created, those same leaders issued mandates requiring millions to take them.
For instance, Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney said in August 2021 that science shows mask and vaccine mandates would slow the spread.
“The updated policies we announced today are critical to slowing the spread of the Delta variant of COVID-19, which is more dangerous and transmissible than earlier forms of the virus,” Kenney said in a <a href="https://www.phila.gov/2021-08-12-city-of-philadelphia-implements-new-covid-19-vaccine-and-mask-requirements/">statement</a>. “The science is clear: these measures will protect Philadelphians and save lives.&#8221;
But researchers found zero evidence to back that up.
&#8220;Our findings put into question the efficacy of city-level vaccine mandates,&#8221; the researchers found. &#8220;Indoor vaccine mandates caused large disruptions for many individuals and businesses. New York City, for example, fired 1,430 city workers for failing to comply with its vaccine mandate. A survey found that over 90% of NYC restaurants reported having customer-related challenges, such as losing customers who objected to the mandate, and 75% having staff-related challenges. Those are just a small fraction of the disruptions caused by the mandates.&#8221;
&#8220;Most supporters of the mandates claim that the associated increase in vaccination rates, and its implied reduction in the spread of COVID-19, outweigh the cost of the disruptions. However, we find that the effects of the mandates on their intended outcomes are not statistically noticeable in any of the cities they were implemented in all empirical strategies used,&#8221; the report said.
Vitor Melo, a postdoctoral fellow at the Mercatus Center, said the cities&#8217; &#8220;intended outcomes were to raise vaccination rates, for people to get more vaccines; and consequently, the expectation was that COVID cases and deaths would go down.&#8221; But he added that compared to cities that didn’t implement mandates, the study found “there’s not much to show for it,&#8221; WTOP <a href="https://wtop.com/dc/2023/02/study-how-effective-was-dcs-indoor-covd-19-vaccine-mandate-in-raising-vaccination-rates/">reported</a>.
The final report added one final &#8220;key takeaway.&#8221;
&#8220;Public health restrictions and regulations were widespread during the COVID-19 pandemic, and so understanding their consequences is essential. The authors find that city-level mandates had smaller effect on vaccine uptake (and consequently on COVID-19 cases and deaths) than nationwide mandates — and thus failed to achieve their intended objectives,&#8221; said the report.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
Joseph Curl has covered politics for 35 years, including 12 years as White House correspondent for a national newspaper. He was also the a.m. editor of the Drudge Report for four years. Send tips to josephcurl@dailywire.com and follow him on Twitter @josephcurl.

President Biden Receives Covid-19 Booster Shot At The White House

Citywide Vaccine Mandates Did Nothing To Stop Spread Of COVID: Researchers

Citywide Vaccine Mandates Did Nothing To Stop Spread Of COVID, Researchers Find

COVID-19 Vaccine

A new <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nchhstp/newsroom/fact-sheets/healthy-youth/sadness-and-violence-among-teen-girls-and-LGBQ-youth-factsheet.html#teen-girls" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) uncovered extremely high levels of depression, suicidal thoughts, substance use, and violence experienced by teen girls — and even higher levels for kids who identify as &#8220;LGBQ+&#8221;.
The report, which comprises data collected from the fall of 2021, is our first glimpse of the CDC Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance findings since the start of COVID lockdowns. Though these numbers were already on a troubling trend prior to lockdowns, it appears the lockdowns and other factors (we&#8217;ll get into later) kicked the crisis into high gear. 
<h2>By The Numbers: Teen Girls</h2>
Nearly 3 in 5 high school girls surveyed — or a shocking 57% — reported feelings of persistent sadness or hopelessness, which is a 60% increase over the past decade. 
<div id="attachment_501771" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-501771" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-501771 size-large" src="https://www.dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Screen-Shot-2023-02-15-at-12.09.34-PM-1024x554.png" alt="" width="1024" height="554" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/02/Screen-Shot-2023-02-15-at-12.09.34-PM-1024x554.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/02/Screen-Shot-2023-02-15-at-12.09.34-PM-300x162.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/02/Screen-Shot-2023-02-15-at-12.09.34-PM-768x415.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/02/Screen-Shot-2023-02-15-at-12.09.34-PM-1536x831.png 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/02/Screen-Shot-2023-02-15-at-12.09.34-PM.png 1864w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />Source: CDC</div>
Another 30% of teen girls said they&#8217;ve seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year, an 11-point increase since 2011, when the rate was at 19%. For some comparison, boys answering that same question about suicide showed a 1% increase since 2011, totaling 14%, which is about half of what was found for girls. 
<div id="attachment_501781" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-501781" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-501781 size-large" src="https://www.dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Screen-Shot-2023-02-15-at-12.19.40-PM-1024x565.png" alt="" width="1024" height="565" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/02/Screen-Shot-2023-02-15-at-12.19.40-PM-1024x565.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/02/Screen-Shot-2023-02-15-at-12.19.40-PM-300x166.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/02/Screen-Shot-2023-02-15-at-12.19.40-PM-768x424.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/02/Screen-Shot-2023-02-15-at-12.19.40-PM-1536x848.png 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/02/Screen-Shot-2023-02-15-at-12.19.40-PM.png 1812w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />Source: CDC</div>
On to sexual violence: More than 1 in 10 teen girls surveyed said they&#8217;ve ever been forced to have sex, a 27% jump from just 2019 and the first increase the CDC has seen since monitoring the metric. Nearly 1 in 5 teen girls said they&#8217;ve experienced sexual violence over just the past year, that’s a 20% increase from 2017.
<div id="attachment_501640" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-501640" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-501640 size-large" src="https://www.dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Screen-Shot-2023-02-15-at-9.21.12-AM-1024x559.png" alt="" width="1024" height="559" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/02/Screen-Shot-2023-02-15-at-9.21.12-AM-1024x559.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/02/Screen-Shot-2023-02-15-at-9.21.12-AM-300x164.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/02/Screen-Shot-2023-02-15-at-9.21.12-AM-768x419.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/02/Screen-Shot-2023-02-15-at-9.21.12-AM-1536x838.png 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/02/Screen-Shot-2023-02-15-at-9.21.12-AM.png 1862w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />Source: CDC</div>
<h2>LGBQ+</h2>
And if you think those numbers are bad, let&#8217;s take a look at the teen students who identify as &#8220;LGBQ+&#8221;. (The CDC dropped the transgender — the &#8220;t&#8221; — from the acronym because the agency said it never specifically asked about &#8220;gender identity.&#8221;)
Nearly 70% of these students said they suffer persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness — that&#8217;s just about double the teens who identify as heterosexual. And almost half said they&#8217;ve seriously considered attempting suicide, with about 1 in 4 actually attempting suicide.
<div id="attachment_501800" style="width: 1019px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-501800" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-501800 size-large" src="https://www.dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Screen-Shot-2023-02-15-at-12.31.42-PM-1009x576.png" alt="" width="1009" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/02/Screen-Shot-2023-02-15-at-12.31.42-PM-1009x576.png 1009w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/02/Screen-Shot-2023-02-15-at-12.31.42-PM-300x171.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/02/Screen-Shot-2023-02-15-at-12.31.42-PM-768x439.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/02/Screen-Shot-2023-02-15-at-12.31.42-PM-1536x877.png 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/02/Screen-Shot-2023-02-15-at-12.31.42-PM.png 1860w" sizes="(max-width: 1009px) 100vw, 1009px" />Source: CDC</div>
<h2>CDC &#8216;Strategies&#8217; </h2>
The CDC basically recommended school intervention as the answer, here, citing the amount of time American kids spend in the classroom on a daily basis. It suggested something called &#8220;<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/protective/school_connectedness.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">school connectedness</a>,&#8221; which it defined as an environment where students feel that adults and peers in the school care about their learning as well as them as individuals. 
Ironically, and pretty unbelievably, the agency also recommended more LGBTQ clubs and additional &#8220;quality health education&#8221; that&#8217;s &#8220;LGBTQ+ inclusive&#8221; and focuses on &#8220;sexual consent.&#8221; In other words: more sexual education.
<h2>Other Factors</h2>
It&#8217;s unclear if the CDC will have more recommendations in the future, but noticeably absent from the agency&#8217;s listed strategies was anything about the mainstreaming of gender confusion (well, aside from encouraging more of it), social media use, or the pervasive nature of pornography. 
Young girls have seen rates of depression, anxiety, and self-harm spike since around 2010, when social media platforms were really expanding, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/11/facebooks-dangerous-experiment-teen-girls/620767/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">research</a> shows. For one thing, places like Facebook and Instagram, where girls are comparing their “likes” and photos to others, can really amplify body image issues and other insecurities.
And then there&#8217;s easy access to pornography, which is no doubt informing the extremely young on sex in the worst ways.
<a href="https://www.wlbt.com/2023/01/10/most-children-exposed-porn-by-age-12-study-says/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Studies</a> have shown that kids as young as elementary school are being exposed to this adult content, with an estimated 15% of kids being exposed before they&#8217;re even 10 years old. And of the teens who watch porn on a regular basis, an estimated 83% of them have viewed porn that depicts rape and other violence, which is likely tied to the spike in sexual violence experienced by young girls. 
Unfortunately, the numbers show a really bleak prospect for all our young people, and until we get serious about what&#8217;s really causing these problems, we can expect these trends to continue.
The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is a free hotline for individuals in crisis or distress or for those looking to help someone else. It is available 24/7 at 1-800-273-8255.

Desperate woman

These Staggering Statistics And Charts Reveal How Deeply Troubled Our Teen Girls Really Are

Girls

Readers Pass

Social Issues

Suicide

Teenagers

The first pages of the New Testament open with John the Baptist likening the ministry of Jesus Christ to the work of a winnowing fork: a tool used by farmers to toss stalks of grain into the air, separating the wheat that would fall to the ground and collected into the farmer’s barn from the unwanted chaff that would be blown away with the wind and later burned.
American evangelical ministers concur that the advent of government lockdown mandates and the social justice movement that began nearly three years ago and continue to reverberate across the nation’s cultural landscape ultimately served to sift their congregations. Attendance had declined to 85% of pre-lockdown levels in Protestant churches even as nearly every church in the country resumed normal worship services, according to a <a href="https://research.lifeway.com/2022/11/08/churches-are-open-but-still-recovering-from-pandemic-attendance-losses/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">study</a> from Lifeway Research. Some 34% of professing Christians said they attended church four times per month or more before the lockdowns, a figure which declined to 26% by the spring of 2022.
The share of the overall population saying they never attend worship services has likewise soared from 25% to 33% between early 2020 and early 2022, according to <a href="https://www.americansurveycenter.org/research/faith-after-the-pandemic-how-covid-19-changed-american-religion/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">research</a> from the American Enterprise Institute and the University of Chicago.
Even as the death of George Floyd and subsequent waves of leftist activism throttled the nation, professing Christians increasingly denied biblical teachings with respect to social issues. The most recent biennial State of Theology <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/from-the-inspiration-of-scripture-to-gender-identity-evangelicalism-sees-a-massive-leftward-shift" target="_blank" rel="noopener">survey</a> from Ligonier Ministries found that the share of evangelicals who believe “gender identity is a matter of choice” rose from 22% to 37% between 2020 and 2022, while the share who believe “the Bible’s condemnation of homosexual behavior doesn’t apply today” more than doubled from 11% to 28%. 
Professing evangelicals also began to reject the most basic theological convictions held throughout church history. While some 15% of respondents to the Ligonier Ministries survey said that “the Bible, like all sacred writings, contains helpful accounts of ancient myths but is not literally true” in 2020, the figure increased to 26% by 2022, showing a rapid decline in the commitment to the inspiration and authority of Scripture.
Even as millions of church attendees were lost to the wind, others reoriented their priorities toward pursuing membership in churches with a steadfast commitment to doctrinal fidelity amid the volatile cultural moment. One such congregation was Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, where Pastor John MacArthur peacefully resisted the state’s lockdown orders and reopened services. The church, which later <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/l-a-county-to-pay-400000-to-john-macarthurs-grace-community-church">won</a> a lawsuit against their state government, has “added hundreds of new members every month” for nearly three years, according to Pastor Phil Johnson, who works as executive director of Grace to You, the church’s teaching ministry.
“Numerous Southern California churches stayed closed for months even after retail stores and other businesses had reopened, and people who were frustrated with the closures, starved for fellowship,” Johnson recounted to The Daily Wire, adding that “lots of people from other churches came” when they heard about Grace Community Church on the news. “We received a large influx of new attendees, starting shortly after we resumed regular services in 2020. It seems most of those people have stayed, and many of them have become members.”
Pastor Josh Buice of Pray’s Mill Baptist Church in Douglasville, Georgia, noted in an <a href="https://g3min.org/12-years-later/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">article</a> provided to The Daily Wire that his first several years leading the congregation were marked by numerical decline as he implemented various reforms. The trend paradoxically reversed itself when lockdowns struck the nation. “While many churches struggled to survive, we started to see a steady numerical growth,” he wrote. “During the last two years, we have added more new members than any recorded two year time period of our church’s history.”
The end of the article commends ministers toward patient obedience as the Lord carries out the work of building the church, regardless of whether or not the congregation sees more or less new members. “To the pastor who is faithfully serving God and seeking to obey the Scriptures as a faithful pastor, just remember that God sees your faithful labor and knows the needs you have personally and corporately,” he continued. “Continue to be steadfast in the faith and the Lord will remain faithful.”

Protestant church.  Altar and christian cross.  France.

Wheat And Chaff: A Three-Year Post-Mortem On Evangelical Church Attendance

Bible

Religion

Zoom announced on Tuesday that the <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/business" target="_blank" rel="noopener">company</a> would dismiss 15% of its workforce as the demand surge caused by government <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/lockdowns" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lockdown</a> mandates continues to subside.
Zoom CEO Eric Yuan said in a <a href="https://blog.zoom.us/a-message-from-eric-yuan-ceo-of-zoom/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">memo</a> to the company that some 1,300 individuals would lose their positions. Beyond the slowdown in new demand, he referenced broader <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/economy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">economic</a> uncertainty and its effects on customers to spend on services.
“We built Zoom to remove the friction that businesses felt when collaborating. Our trajectory was forever changed during the pandemic when the world faced one of its toughest challenges, and I am proud of the way we mobilized as a company to keep people connected,” the executive wrote. “To make this possible, we needed to staff up rapidly to support the quick rise of users on our platform and their evolving needs.”
The company tripled in size within two years, but neglected to “take as much time as we should have to thoroughly analyze our teams or assess if we were growing sustainably, toward the highest priorities.” Members of the executive team will reduce their base salaries by 20% and forfeit their corporate bonuses, while Yuan will pass on his bonus and 98% of his salary.
Shares for Zoom increased 9.9% on Tuesday following the announcement. The company’s stock has declined 40.7% over the past year, significantly underperforming the S&amp;P 500 Index and the technology-heavy NASDAQ Composite.
Many companies allowed employees to work from home when lockdowns shuttered offices across the country three years ago. As the mandates subsided, however, many firms have experienced difficulties drawing workers back to the office. Time savings from avoided commutes, as well as new opportunities to more easily balance work and personal matters, are primary benefits cited by remote and hybrid workers, according to a <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/355907/remote-work-persisting-trending-permanent.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noopener">poll</a> from Gallup.
On the other hand, costs induced by virtual work arrangements are palpable for employers: 85% of business leaders say the shift to hybrid work “has made it challenging to have confidence that employees are being productive,” according to a <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/worklab/work-trend-index/hybrid-work-is-just-work" target="_blank" rel="noopener">study</a> from Microsoft.
Several executives have voiced a preference for employees to cease remote work. Tesla CEO Elon Musk <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/musk-remote-work-is-no-longer-acceptable-at-tesla" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> employees at the electric automaker that work-from-home is “no longer” acceptable and commented on social media that those who disagree with the new rule “should pretend to work somewhere else.” During a meeting with Twitter employees before his acquisition of the social media company was finalized, Musk was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/freedom-of-speech-and-freedom-of-reach-elon-musk-tells-twitter-employees-users-should-be-able-to-tweet-pretty-outrageous-things" target="_blank" rel="noopener">asked</a> about remote work, leading him to assert that working “on location physically” is far superior to other arrangements.
The dismissals at Zoom follow headcount reductions among other technology companies. Microsoft, Google, and Amazon <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-white-house-brushed-off-concerns-about-mass-firings-at-microsoft-and-amazon-now-google-is-laying-off-employees-too" target="_blank" rel="noopener">revealed</a> their intentions to decrease payrolls by more than 40,000 combined workers over the past few weeks as key investors noted that rapid increases in compensation has caused lower profitability. Many companies increased hires after the lockdown-induced recession in response to elevated consumer demand.
More than 66,000 workers have been dismissed from leading technology firms in the first month of 2023, according to a <a href="https://news.crunchbase.com/startups/tech-layoffs/#:~:text=More%20than%2046%2C000%20workers%20in,person%20layoff%20announcements%20this%20week." target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> from Crunchbase, even after companies in the sector dismissed some 140,000 positions last year.

Key Speakers At The BoxWorks 2019 Conference

Zoom Drastically Downsizes As Lockdown Demand Falters, CEO Will Reduce His Own Salary By 98%

Zoom Drastically Downsizes After Lockdown Demand Falters

Remote Work

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