Teen's Suicide Shows How Mental Health Can Be Destroyed By Virus

ACROSS AMERICA — Sixteen-year-old Spencer Smith didn't die of the coronavirus. But he died as a result of it.

His father, Jay Smith of Brunswick, Maine, told NBC News the teen was having trouble coping with the changes brought on by the virus before he committed suicide.

"We knew he was upset because he was no longer able to participate in his school activities, football. We never guessed it was this bad," Smith told NBC News. "Looking back now, we could see little things that we should have caught, but we didn't realize his mental health was deteriorating as bad."

Spencer Smith was involved in activities and sports, including football, as a sophomore at Brunswick High School.

His father said he worked all summer long to be in shape to play as a lineman on the school's football team. But when the pandemic caused the school to switch to flag football as a way to prevent the virus's spread, he "gave up on it," his father said.

"It wasn't the same type of practice because they had to social distance. He didn't like that part of it," Smith said.

The teen left a note describing his struggles due to isolation, stating he felt like he was "locked in this house."

Read more via NBC News

The Latest

The 300,000th coronavirus-related death in the United States was reported just hours after a vaccine was administered to Americans for the first time.

The grim milestone was reached around 3 p.m. Monday, according to data from The New York Times. Shortly after, data from Johns Hopkins University also showed more than 300,000 deaths due to the virus.

The vaccine, developed by the American pharmaceutical company Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech, has been approved in the United States, and the first doses were administered to health care workers Monday morning.

David Conway, an emergency room nurse at University of Iowa Hospital in Iowa City, was among the first Americans to be vaccinated.

“I am not nervous, I am very excited,” he told The New York Times after taking the vaccine. “I have been looking forward to the vaccine since March.”

This marks the start of a historic vaccination process, public officials have said.

“To me, we were watching an incredibly historic moment, and the beginning of something much better for this city and this country,” New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Monday, according to the Times.

The first shipments of the vaccine were headed to all 50 states on Sunday. Trucks carrying 184,275 virals of the vaccine left from a Pfizer plant in Portage, Michigan, on Sunday morning, according to CNN.

By Tuesday, all states are expected to have the vaccines, which the Food and Drug Administration approved for emergency use Friday night.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said his state will begin vaccinations Tuesday morning. Murphy said he and the state's health commissioner will be at University Hospital in Newark as the first vaccine shots are given.

Pfizer has said its clinical trials show the vaccine is about 95 percent effective. The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine had already been approved for use in the United Kingdom and Canada.

The vaccine rollout comes as the United States has surpassed 16 million coronavirus cases, and as the country nears the staggering milestone of 300,000 coronavirus-related deaths.

This week has been dubbed "make or break" on the possibility of a second coronavirus relief bill getting through before the end of the year.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers could introduce a $908 billion proposal on Monday, according to The New York Times.

“We’ve broken the gridlock,” Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin III of West Virginia told the NYT.

Hospitalizations due to the virus continue at or near all-time highs. According to the Covid Tracking Project, more than 108,000 people are currently hospitalized due to complications from the virus.

Now there is public data that can help Americans see how full the hospitals are near them. A "look-up tool" was released by NPR that is searchable by county.

Newest Numbers

At least 1,496 new coronavirus deaths and 188,191 new daily cases had been reported in the United States on Sunday, according to a Washington Post database. Over the past seven days, the United States has averaged more than 213,000 cases each day.

As of Monday, 47 states and Puerto Rico remained above the positive testing rate recommended by the World Health Organization to safely reopen. To safely reopen, the WHO recommends states remain at 5 percent or lower for at least 14 days.

More than 16.3 million people in the United States had tested positive for the coronavirus as of Monday afternoon, and more than 300,200 have died, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

Stay up to date on the latest coronavirus news via The New York Times or Washington Post.

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