The Science of Covid

In contradistinction to Bill Gates, I have no qualifications in epidemiology or biochemistry or medical science. Thus, I offer this information in true humility. Gates, we have seen, is now a leading authority on the coronavirus-- which means that he has too much free time.

For those who really know something about science-- an ever-shrinking coterie-- the Swedish example should be considered a control experiment. 

This report comes from the Foundation for Economic Education:

Unlike most other European countries and nations around the world, Sweden declined to initiate a nationwide lockdown or mask mandates, opting instead for a policy that restricted large gatherings and relied on social responsibility to slow transmission of the virus.

For months, Sweden was criticized for its decision to forego an economic lockdown.

“Sweden becomes an example of how not to handle COVID-19,” CBS declared in its headline in a July article.

Sweden had become a “cautionary tale,” the New York Times declared the same month.

“They are leading us to catastrophe,” The Guardian warned in March.

Dozens of similar examples can be found. With every passing week, however, it’s becoming more clear that Sweden got the virus right. For starters, Swedish officials point out that even if lockdowns did save lives, they cannot long be endured.

"The measures that are being taken in Europe are not sustainable, we're trying to find a level that is steady and that keeps the spread down. We can't get rid of it, but we can keep it down at a reasonable level," Johan Carlson, the director general of Sweden's public health agency, said in an interview with public broadcaster SVT on Sunday.

It’s also worth pointing out that Sweden has avoided some of the economic carnage of its European neighbours experienced by implementing harsh lockdowns. In August, the BBC pointed out that Sweden’s economy experienced much less damage during the pandemic.

Both of these facts help explain why Sweden has not witnessed the widespread social unrest other nations have seen.

All those who said to listen to the science are happy to ignore the Swedish example. 

The report concludes:

With every passing week we’re seeing that the world’s lockdown experiment failed, and failed horribly—destroying millions of businesses, tens of millions of jobs, and causing widespread mental and physical health deterioration. (There’s a reason European leaders such as Boris Johnson are now consulting with Sweden’s top infectious disease expert, Anders Tegnell.)

As John Tierney recently explained in City Journal, the best that can be said of stay-at-home orders is that they may have made sense before we had solid data and little clue about the type of virus we were dealing with. We know better now. There is no correlation between lockdown stringency and COVID-19 deaths, while their harms are induspitable. 

This is why thousands of medical practitioners and public health scientists have signed a new declaration—the Great Barrington Declaration—expressing grave concerns over the adverse effects of lockdowns and calling for a more targeted approach.

In June, following publication of an NPR report that showed COVID-19 is not as dangerous as first believed, I suggested lockdowns could prove to be the biggest expert “fail” since the Iraq War.

Four months later, the evidence only looks stronger.

Would you believe, it's all about politics.

Here it is in visual form: