The hosts of “The View” were quick to push back against Dr. Phil on Monday morning, as he complained about schools being shut down during the height of the pandemic. As the women reminded him, “they were trying to save kids’ lives.”
In discussing his new book, Dr. Phil noted how social media has had a negative impact on the mental health of children since its inception, before pivoting to complain about school shutdowns.
“They stopped living their lives, and started watching people live their lives. And so we saw the biggest spike and the highest levels of depression, anxiety, loneliness, and suicidality since records have ever been kept,” he explained. “And, it’s just continued on and on and on.”
He continued, “And then COVID hits 10 years later, and the same agencies that knew that, are the agencies that shut down the schools for two years. Who does that?”
The former daytime host lamented that not only did it take away children’s support systems in many cases, but also ranted that the shutdowns “abandoned” some children to be in abusive homes full-time.
“But there was also a pandemic going on, they were trying to save children’s lives,” host Sunny Hostin chimed in.
“They were trying to save kids’ lives,” Whoopi Goldberg agreed. “Remember, we know a lot of folks who died during this. So, people weren’t laying around eating bonbons.”
To Whoopi’s reminder of how many people died, Dr. Phil slipped in a “not schoolchildren,” prompting her to press back more.
“Well, you know what, we’re lucky,” she retorted. “Maybe we’re lucky they didn’t, because we kept them out of the places they could be sick, because no one wanted to believe we had an issue!”
At that, host Ana Navarro added in, bewilderedly asking Dr. Phil, “Are you saying no schoolchildren died of COVID?”
“I’m saying it was the safest group. They were the less vulnerable group,” he replied. “And they suffered, and will suffer, more from the mismanagement of COVID than they will from the exposure to COVID. And that’s not an opinion, that’s a fact.”
The reality is though, according to the Mayo Clinic, “children are as likely to get COVID-19 as adults,” just “less likely to become severely ill. Up to 50% of children and adolescents might have COVID-19 with no symptoms.”
But, the hosts didn’t get a chance to remind Dr. Phil of that, as they were forced to commercial based on the time.
“Well Phil, we don’t even have time to talk it out now, man,” Whoopi answered. “But thanks for coming.”
“The View” airs weekdays at 11 a.m. ET on ABC.
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