An interesting Twitter thread
It is interesting.
In ways the author intends and in ways he probably does not.
First, he very successfully illustrates how seemingly good data, by professional experts can be misleading when a graph/chart, presumably erroneously, is misplotted.
But then, after arguing that the data shows school closures/lockdowns weren't particularly key to youth suicides, what he actually shows is a consistent upward trend in same.
The time and dates of the attempts don't line up with harshest lockdown measures/school closures, which he takes to show means they caused less harm that some argue.......
I might suggest that's a potentially egregious misread.
When does one expect that a suicide attempt might be forthcoming? Would it be during the weeks when one is isolated from real-world consequences? Or would it be when one goes back to school and is 2 months behind?
Would it be when one hasn't seen friends, but longs for them; or when one realizes friendships and relationships have ended due to time apart?
That's not to argue against all lockdown/closures; but the conclusions the author draws seem..........under-substantiated.
Certainly, no one could argue based on the charts above that the pandemic was not impactful on the rate of youth suicide in this data grouping.
That only leaves the question of what was key to that; and why things happened when they did.
I expect that's not fully knowable.
But certainly I find that his apparent conclusion that because suicide attempts didn't peak during the school closure/and or the most severe lockdowns) that that wasn't a material cause is rather questionable.