Expecting a routine book promotion, “The View” hosts found themselves caught off guard when Dr. Phil McGraw took the stage on Monday, steering the conversation toward the detrimental impact of school closures on innocent children amid the COVID pandemic.

The segment took a dramatic turn when co-host Sara Haines broached the topic of social media’s influence on parenting, prompting Dr. Phil to delve into the dire consequences of smartphone dependency among youth, which has led to soaring rates of depression and suicide.

Dr. Phil then shifted focus to the pandemic’s exacerbation of these issues, highlighting how school closures stripped away vital protective measures, leaving vulnerable children exposed to increased risks of abuse and assault within their own homes.

Attempting to downplay the severity of the situation, Whoopi Goldberg clumsily defended government actions as attempts to “save kid’s lives,” suggesting America was merely “lucky” to have kept children confined.

Meanwhile, Ana Navarro’s response missed the mark entirely, as she obliviously questioned Dr. Phil about COVID-related child fatalities, failing to grasp his broader point.

Unfazed by the hosts’ deflections, Dr. Phil delivered a final reality check, emphasizing that while children remained the least affected by COVID itself, they bore the brunt of the pandemic’s mismanagement.

As the audience applauded his candor, Goldberg expressed gratitude before the show cut to a commercial break, leaving viewers pondering the sobering insights delivered by the renowned TV host.

Here’s the full transcript:

Dr. Phil: In, like, ’08, ’09, smartphones came on, and kids started, they stopped living their lives and starting 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, and it’s just continued on and on and on.

COVID hits ten years later. And the same agencies that knew that are the same agencies that shut down the schools for TWO YEARS. Who does that?

Dr. Phil: Not schoolchildren.
Goldberg: Well, you know what, we’re lucky ’cause we kept them out of the uh, uh, places they could get not sick.
Navarro (stunned): Are you saying no schoolchildren died from COVID?
Dr. Phil: I’m saying it was the safest group. They were the least vulnerable group.
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.

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