We Always Knew Lockdowns Wouldn't Work
The Failure of Lockdowns to Prevent Covid Deaths, and the Economic and Societal Destruction they Caused, was Foreseeable
A recent meta-analysis from Johns Hopkins showing that lockdowns had nearly no benefit at controlling Covid is in the news. The study concludes that:
“lockdowns are not an effective way of reducing mortality rates during
a pandemic…” “…the evidence fails to confirm that lockdowns have a significant effect in reducing COVID-19 mortality. The effect is little to none.”
To which I would respond:
But, while the lockdowns were ineffective at there stated goal, they had huge economic and social costs. The study summarizes:
“…lockdowns during the initial phase of the COVID-19 pandemic have had devastating effects. They have contributed to reducing economic activity, raising unemployment, reducing schooling, causing political unrest, contributing to domestic violence, and undermining liberal democracy. These costs to society must be compared to the benefits of lockdowns, which our meta-analysis has shown are marginal at best. Such a standard benefit-cost calculation leads to a strong conclusion: lockdowns should be rejected out of hand as a pandemic policy instrument.”
And here’s the key point, just remember that those in charge knew this prior to the pandemic, or at least they should have known.
Our pandemic plans were never based around lockdowns or shutting down the economy with mass quarantining of the healthy. The latest pandemic plans from WHO (September 2019) and CDC (April 2017) both stated that forced mass quarantine of exposed individuals should not be recommended under any circumstances. Even a group of scientists from Johns Hopkins themselves (the same univeristy publishing the meta-analysis above) in September of 2019 in a study on pandemic preparedness wrote that mass quarantines don't work, but:
"might be pursued for social or political purposes by political leaders, rather than pursued because of public health evidence."
They knew it wouldn't work! But after watching the news out of China they panicked, tossed out all pandemic preparations, and followed "The Science" of 2020. Or worse...
What happened next? When scientists spoke out against lockdowns, like the scientists behind the Great Barrington Declaration, they were vilified and censored. What less than a year ago had been the scientific consensus, suddenly became strictly verboten, and to voice such opinions meant risking one's standing, one's job, or worse. This was true for lockdowns, just as it was true for masks, school closures, and every other aspect of the Zero Covid fantasy.
The evidence was clear very early on that lockdowns were not having a substantial effect at stopping Covid, and the societal and economic downsides were evident everywhere one looked. But instead of listening to reason, and backing away from these failed measures, our Public Health Betters have doubled down on failure for two years and counting!
We all feel like this is coming to an end soon, not because any of it has worked, but simply that it all has failed so miserably that a large enough segment of the public is now ready to move on, as recent polling has shown.
But if the truth of this failure is not laid bare, do not doubt for a second that these measures will creep back into place during the next respiratory virus season. They must be repudiated! Thoroughly and completely.
And those responsible for instituting these policies must be held accountable for their utter, and foreseeable, failure!
Anyway 0 and 2...