A shocking case of domestic confinement has emerged after three children were “rescued” from a home where they were allegedly kept locked inside for four years. According to local authorities, the parents suffered from a severe, delusional “COVID syndrome,” an obsessive fear of the virus that led them to completely isolate their children from the outside world starting in early 2020. The children, whose identities are being protected, had not seen sunlight or another human being outside their parents in nearly half a decade.

When officers entered the home, they found the children in a state of developmental stagnation. Clad in masks even inside their own rooms, the siblings had allegedly been told that the air outside was “deadly.” The case has highlighted the profound mental health toll that the global pandemic has taken on vulnerable individuals, manifesting in extreme paranoia and the total breakdown of rational parenting.

Social workers are now beginning the long process of reintegrating the children into society. Experts in child trauma state that the “four-year gap” in their socialization and education will require intensive therapy and specialized schooling. The parents are currently facing multiple charges of child endangerment and kidnapping, as the legal system grapples with how to balance criminal intent with severe psychological illness.

This tragedy serves as a grim reminder of the “silent victims” of the pandemic era. While the world moved on and restrictions lifted, for these children, the lockdown never ended. The rescue is a victory for child protection services, but it also raises questions about how such extreme isolation can go unnoticed in modern neighborhoods for so many years.