lockdowns?

I’m taking the lazy way out today, letting some other writer tell you something I think you’d like to know. I’m still not good for much after some bug hit me so hard Monday night to tally up enough points to earn a COVID test, the up the nose with a test tube brush kind. But I feel so much better after just 2 of the penicillins the NP prescribed me for what she thought was a strept throat, I think the only COVID stat I’ll be adding to is “number tested”. I get my results later today.

Steve Hayward, a political writer not a physician or scientist, wrote today in Powerline about a study reported yesterday in Lancet in which the investigators scrutinized COVID stats from 50 countries, seeing how they relate to population demographics in those countries, and to the government policies in each country. I’ll let Mr. Hayward tell you the details, but 3 things that struck me were: 1) it hurts to be rich and fat (“ Increased mortality per million was significantly associated with higher obesity prevalence and per capita gross domestic product (GDP).“), 2) border closings and lockdowns did not have an effect of COVID mortality, and 3) smoking could be protective, which I’d written about before (https://wordpress.com/block-editor/post/theviewfromharbal.com/448). Of no surprise was their finding that recovery rate were better in countries with better health care systems.

Since many of our leaders are itching to do it all over again, maybe we should look at what we did the first time and not repeat our mistakes. The Lancet study is a start. https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2020/07/were-the-lockdowns-effective-at-all.php

For those of you who want to straight to the source, here ya go: https://www.thelancet.com/action/showPdf?pii=S2589-5370%2820%2930208-X