The costs of the COVID-19 lockdown

Heather Mac Donald at American Greatness asks all the right questions:

More than a dozen governors extended their economic shutdown orders recently into May and beyond. Those officials should have publicly addressed the following questions first:

• How many coronavirus deaths do you expect to avert by the shut-down extension?
• What will your state’s economy look like after another month of enforced stasis?
• How many workers will have lost their jobs?
• How many businesses will have closed for good?
• How many of your state’s young residents, seeking employment for the first time, will be unable to find it?

Instead, the announcements of the prolonged shutdown were representative of government decision-making during the coronavirus crisis: opaque, lacking in criteria for measuring success and failure, and bereft of any attempt to measure the benefits of mitigating one particular health problem against the costs—including other health problems. . . . 

She concludes:

The focus on saving “just one life” from the coronavirus, as Cuomo put it in March, to the exclusion of all other considerations likely will prove a catastrophic failure of policymaking. The devastation to individuals’ ability to flourish or even survive may soon become irreversible. Every scientific model used to justify these economic death sentences has been discredited. But even if those models were proven reliable, government decision-making must turn toward opening up. Officials must be made to justify, through a transparent analysis of costs and benefits, all further mandates to prevent people from working. Otherwise, there may be nothing recognizable as our economy to return to, with a resulting cost in human life and well-being that will match anything the coronavirus could inflict.

Ms. Mac Donald’s full article (“The Deadly Costs of Extended Shutdown Orders”) is here.  All good reasons to Open Ohio Now.

Details of the Open Ohio Now rally in Columbus 

on Saturday, April 25, are here.

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Open Ohio Now rally

 

From our friends at Ohio Liberty Coalition:

You are invited to the OPEN OHIO NOW rally happening this Saturday, April 25, at the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus.  There will be guest speakers from 1:00 to 2:30 p.m. on the West side of the building.  

What:  Open Ohio Now Rally

Where:  Ohio Statehouse (West side)

Address:  1 Capitol Square, Columbus, Ohio  MAP

Parking:  Click here for information.

When: Saturday, April 25, 1:00 p.m. There will be a great lineup of speakers 1:00 to 2:30 p.m.

What to bring:  Your signs, your flags and your friends.  Dress for the weather.

Stay up-to-date at the Free Ohio Now Facebook page.

Car Option:  You can also circle the capitol in your car.  Here is a sign to print & put on your car windows.

Don't let the cure be worse than the disease.  Coach Dave Daubenmire puts it well:  

"Look folks, no government can guarantee a person's safety.   Risk is the Siamese twin of liberty.  You cannot save the one without killing the other.  The whole idea of liberty is that we are all free to make individual choices.  Hopefully our laws go a long way in mitigating calamity, but there is no such thing as a guarantee of freedom from non-preventive risk.

Drunken driving laws did not eliminate drunken driving, laws against texting and driving did not prevent texting and driving, drug laws did not prevent drug use, and wearing masks did not prevent the spread of a virus.  Laws simply PUNISH behavior, not prevent it.

The issue is not whether the draconian efforts to stop the spread of the virus is a good thing, but rather, does the government have the AUTHORITY to DEMAND the people comply.  We are seeing citizens being arrested for simply violating a health order, even if there is no evidence that that person even HAD, let alone SPREAD, the virus to someone else."

The Coach will be one of the rally speakers.

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COVID-19 and propaganda

"Stay At Home. Save Lives."

At the American Thinker, Dex Bahr reminds us all that the propaganda never stops:

As we go through yet another week of Wuhan virus restriction in the United States, do you find yourself becoming annoyed at the daily sloganeering?  We see these messages on television, hear them on radio and flashed before us while driving.  I, for one, am beginning to tire of this "we're all in this together" claptrap, along with "flattening (or bending) the curve"; social distancing; and "stay safe, stay strong."  However, the one slogan that is most irritating is "stay at home...save lives."

Let's not forget that original reason for sheltering at home was to prevent hospital emergency rooms from becoming overrun by slowing the spread of the virus.  The mandate was never to save lives, but to slow the spread and by default prolong the extent of the virus.  Again, staying at home was for the purpose of lessening the burden on hospitals, not saving lives.

Read the rest here.

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The COVID-19 Crisis Un-masked

image credit: michiganradio.org

Today’s Must Read: “Well, That Unraveled Fast” by Jeffrey A. Tucker at the American Institute for Economic Research, which begins:

Thinking back to February 28, 2020, and the New England Journal of Medicine. It published an article called “Covid-19 — Navigating the Uncharted” signed by Anthony S. Fauci (THE Fauci), Clifford Lane, and Robert R. Redfield.  

It reported an existing COVID-19 case fatality rate of 2% but further pointed out that infections show “a wide spectrum of disease severity.” “If one assumes that the number of asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic cases is several times as high as the number of reported cases, the case fatality rate may be considerably less than 1%” or perhaps as high as the flu seasons of 1957 and 1968, but is nowhere near “a disease similar to SARS or MERS, which have had case fatality rates of 9 to 10% and 36%, respectively.” To be sure, they said, mitigating the disease could require “isolating ill persons (including voluntary isolation at home), school closures, and telecommuting where possible.”

Now, what precisely happened between February 28 and two weeks later? This will be studied for many years to find out precisely how governors and mayors, through a series of unscientific, panicked, unjustified, and morally egregious actions, crushed under foot the world’s strongest economy while the media cheered. We’ll be discussing the whys and whats for a generation. 

The point is that it is all unraveling as fast as it came. 

. . .

In this case, it made the U.S Constitution and human rights generally null and void for a full thirty days. And we had no choice but to comply. It was a grotesque experiment in totalitarianism. Families ripped apart, people’s businesses and jobs destroyed, essential surgeries delayed, despair spread throughout society. 

Now we know. Never again. 

Mr. Tucker’s full article is here. 

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The Coronavirus Scream

Matson cartoon credit: www.truthdig.com

Here are the official Coronavirus guidelines as seen on Facebook (satire, or is it?):

1. Basically, you can't leave the house for any reason, but if you have to, then you can.

2. Masks are useless, but maybe you have to wear one, it can save you, it is useless, but maybe it is mandatory as well.

3. Stores are closed, except those that are open.

4. You should not go to hospitals unless you have to go there. Same applies to doctors, you should only go there in case of emergency, provided you are not too sick.

5. This virus is deadly but still not too scary, except that sometimes it actually leads to a global disaster.

6. Gloves won't help, but they can still help.

7. Everyone needs to stay HOME, but it's important to GO OUT.

8. There is no shortage of groceries in the supermarket, but there are many things missing when you go there in the evening, but not in the morning. Sometimes.

9. The virus has no effect on children except those it affects.

10. Animals are not affected, but there is still a cat that tested positive in Belgium in February when no one had been tested, plus a few tigers here and there…

11. You will have many symptoms when you are sick, but you can also get sick without symptoms, have symptoms without being sick, or be contagious without having symptoms. Oh, my...

12. In order not to get sick, you have to eat well and exercise, but eat whatever you have on hand and it's better not to go out, well, but no…

13. It's better to get some fresh air, but you get looked at very wrong when you get some fresh air, and most importantly, you don't go to parks or walk. But don’t sit down, except that you can do that now if you are old, but not for too long or if you are pregnant (but not too old).

14. You can't go to retirement homes, but you have to take care of the elderly and bring food and medication.

15. If you are sick, you can't go out, but you can go to the pharmacy.

16. You can get restaurant food delivered to the house, which may have been prepared by people who didn't wear masks or gloves. But you have to have your groceries decontaminated outside for 3 hours. Pizza too?

17. Every disturbing article or disturbing interview starts with "I don't want to trigger panic, but…"

18. You can't see your older mother or grandmother, but you can take a taxi and meet an older taxi driver.

19. You can walk around with a friend but not with your family if they don't live under the same roof.

20. You are safe if you maintain the appropriate social distance, but you can’t go out with friends or strangers at the safe social distance.

21. The virus remains active on different surfaces for two hours, no, four, no, six, no, we didn't say hours, maybe days? But it takes a damp environment. Oh no, not necessarily.

22. The virus stays in the air - well no, or yes, maybe, especially in a closed room, in one hour a sick person can infect ten, so if it falls, all our children were already infected at school before it was closed. But remember, if you stay at the recommended social distance, however in certain circumstances you should maintain a greater distance, which, studies show, the virus can travel further, maybe.

23. We count the number of deaths but we don't know how many people are infected as we have only tested so far those who were "almost dead" to find out if that's what they will die of…

24. We have no treatment, except that there may be one that apparently is not dangerous unless you take too much (which is the case with all medications).

25. We should stay locked up until the virus disappears, but it will only disappear if we achieve collective immunity, so when it circulates… but we must no longer be locked up for that?

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Sen. John Kennedy: open the US economy soon or it will collapse.

Sen. John Kennedy made such good sense on Tucker Carlson last night. Via FoxNews:

Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., told "Tucker Carlson Tonight" Wednesday that deciding when to reopen the economy amid the coronavirus pandemic is like choosing between "cancer and a heart attack."

"The American people are not morons. They understand what I'm about to say," Kennedy said Wednesday. "We've got to open this economy. If we don't, it's gonna collapse. And if the U.S. economy collapses, the world economy collapses. And trying to burn down the village to save it is foolish. That's our cold, hard truth."

Kennedy went on to say that most Americans know the virus is still spreading and understand it will spread faster whenever states and cities loosen their restrictions. As a result, he said, officials will have to be smart about the situation.

"Don't open up in the middle of a hot spot," Kennedy said. "Encourage your elderly and those with preexisting conditions to stay quarantined and provide them financial support. Wear masks, try to socially distance.

"Use technology without violating privacy to try to track the hot spots and track people who have been exposed," Kennedy said. "Test as much as we can. Make sure that we got health care capacity."

Kennedy also reacted to reports that Democratic New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy is eyeing July as the target for an economic opening.

"He's talking about leaving the economy closed until July. Do you really believe the American people are going to stand for that? They're not," Kennedy said. "This economy is going to collapse."

It was important for Sen. Kennedy to point out that when the economy re-opens for business, new cases of the virus will increase. The supposed purpose of the shut-down was to postpone some of the infections so as to not overwhelm the healthcare system. Plenty of debate going on as to whether that was ever a viable strategy, or even whether that purpose is behind all this.  (Sundance has a good analysis of the ideological aspects in his coverage of the New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy's interview on Tucker Carlson here.  UPDATE: Here's another at Issues and Insights.)

And if you or someone you know contracts COVID-19 / Wuhan virus, you know to ask your doctor if you are a candidate for a hydroxychloroquine cocktail.  Here's a quick look at the risks of taking hydroxychloroquine. 

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Who Will Get Blamed?

image credit: poynter.org

Who Will Get Blamed 

If Coronavirus Shutdown Turns Out To Be 

A Massive Overreaction?

The editorial at Issues and Insights asks the big questions:

As the Trump administration tries to figure out when to reopen the economy, and Democrats try to blame President Donald Trump for every coronavirus death, there’s another question lurking in the background. What if we learn that trillions of dollars in economic costs from the coronavirus shutdown bought us little or nothing in terms of public health?

As the disease progresses and our understanding of it increases, that possibility grows.

The editorial then expands on the following topics:

• Death projections were wildly exaggerated. 
• Reports of overwhelmed health care were exaggerated. 
• Death counts are likely inflated.
• The death rate is magnitudes lower than it appears.
• There are clear at-risk groups. 
• It’s not entirely clear how well isolation works.
• Ventilators might be causing deaths.

The editorial concludes:

We are the first to admit that, because this coronavirus is new and early signs about its lethality were worrisome, extra precaution was warranted as coronavirus spread. But not everyone was hitting the panic button, it’s just that voices of calm were ignored. If it turns out that the risks were far less dire, and the disease far more manageable without draconian restrictions, how will the public react? Who will they blame for needlessly crashing the economy?

We know who Democrats will blame, of course. But if the evidence shows that massive shutdowns weren’t needed, there must be a reckoning. And it should start with the public health “experts” who brought them about.

The full editorial is here.

RELATED:  At PJ Media, Dennis Prager came to the same conclusion (“Has The Lockdown Worked?).

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