CDC gives us a new canonical example of chutzpah?

The standard example of chutzpah has been “that quality enshrined in a man who, having killed his mother and father, throws himself on the mercy of the court because he is an orphan.”

I wonder if we can replace this with one from a U.S. government agency. “CDC Reports Warn of Teen ‘Mental Health Crisis’ During Pandemic” (MedPage Today, 3/31/2022):

In a nationwide survey, high school students reported experiencing poor mental health and life disruptions during the COVID-19 pandemic, CDC researchers said.

Among a nationally representative sample of high school students in the U.S., 37% said that they experienced poor mental health, and 44% reported persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness, reported Sherry Everett Jones, PhD, of the CDC, and colleagues.

Furthermore, about 20% of respondents said they seriously considered attempting suicide, and 9% had attempted suicide during the 12 months before the survey, they noted in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR).

“Our data make it clear that young people experienced significant disruptions during the pandemic, and are experiencing a mental health crisis,” said co-author Kathleen Ethier, PhD, of the CDC, during a conference call with the media. “It is clear right now that young people need all the support we can give them.”

In other words, the agency that enabled state and local school systems to shut down for more than a year (while still ladling out taxpayer-funded salaries at 100%!) under the guise of following Science now says that people should look to them for advice on how to restore the mental health of kids whose schools were thus closed.

Related:

• “Positive Drug Tests Among U.S. Workers Hit Two-Decade High” (Wall Street Journal, 3/30/2022)
• “Alcohol-Related Deaths Spiked During First Year of Pandemic: Study” (WebMD, 3/22/2022)
• NY Post: “For under-65s, booze was deadlier than COVID in 2020.”