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“Such a standard benefit-cost calculation leads to a strong conclusion: lockdowns should be rejected out of hand as a pandemic policy instrument.” This is the conclusion of a meta-analysis of several studies conducted by the prestigious Johns Hopkins University.
This is the conclusion of an extensive meta-analysis of dozens of studies that highlight points such as the error of forcing people to stay at home, even when one member is infected, running “the risk of infecting family members with a higher viral load, leading to more severe disease.”
The study notes that lockdowns prohibited people’s access to outdoor locations, such as beaches and parks, and even included strict restrictions on gathering outdoors, pushing people to gather indoors, which are much less safe and may have increased spread.
Lockdowns only reduced COVID-19 deaths by 0.2% during the first wave of the virus in Europe and the United States, the meta-analysis concludes. It adds that they also imposed enormous economic and social costs wherever they were adopted.
After years of grief, of not seeing family members, broken businesses, people in poverty, increased crime, increased mental illness, and even months in which treatment and diagnosis of serious illnesses were neglected because even hospitals had to limit their services, the data show that the lockdowns did not work and may even have worsened the rate of contagion.
The economic and health damages caused by the lockdowns are enormous. From May 2020 to April 2021 in the United States, there were 100,306 overdose deaths, an increase of 28.5% over the previous period. Domestic violence incidents increased by 8.1 % after lockdown orders. More than 90% of U.S. teachers said their students experienced a learning loss during the pandemic. The unemployment rate even reached 14.8% in April 2020.
Concerning the damages, the lockdowns did to health by dramatically decreasing consultations and diagnostic tests it is very difficult to know how many lives could have been saved, but some data and studies give us an idea of the seriousness of the issue. The CDC reported that breast cancer screenings were down 87% and cervical cancer screenings were down 84% in April 2020. Estimates based on statistical modeling claim that 3.9 million breast cancer diagnoses and 1.6 million prostate cancer diagnoses were possibly missed, on account of the lockdowns.
In 2020, compared with annual averages in 2018 and 2019, the number of colonoscopies completed was down 45%; prostate biopsies were down 29% and cystoscopies to diagnose bladder cancer were down 21%
Many lessons remain from this. One is that Dr. Fauci is a big liar. His claims that stay-at-home orders have “saved millions of lives” add to the long list of lies he has told about COVID. Another key lesson is to always doubt politicians, especially when common sense screams that it is wrong to lock people up in such an extreme way without any proof that such a measure works.
We now know that lockdowns are not based on science and should be absolutely rejected. Beyond that, hopefully, millions have realized that it is never a good idea to allow politicians such a level of intrusion into the lives of individuals.
Vanessa Vallejo. Co-editor-in-chief of El American. Economist. Podcaster. Political and economic analysis of America. Colombian exile in the United States // Vanessa Vallejo. Co-editora en jefe de El American. Economista. Podcaster. Análisis político y económico de América. Colombiana exiliada en EE. UU.