Lockdowns don't save lives, they lose them

Important points from Deaths and Lockdowns, by John Tierney, a contributing editor of City Journal, a contributing science columnist for the New York Times, and coauthor of The Power of Bad: How the Negativity Effect Rules Us and How We Can Rule It.

I'm summarizing and condensing here, but read the whole thing:

Excess mortality rose among older Americans because of Covid-19, but it rose at an even sharper rate among people aged 15 to 54, and most of those excess deaths were not attributed to the virus.

We don't hear very much about all of this; many of us know people who got Covid and recovered; many of us know people who died this past year without receiving the medical care they would have the year before. These observations are anecdotal, to be sure, but you wouldn't think that during what seems to be a plague if you listen to the media, it would be the case. 

The deadly impact of lockdowns will grow in future years. The United States will experience more than 1 million excess deaths in the United States during the next two decades as a result of the massive “unemployment shock” last year, according to a team of researchers from Johns Hopkins and Duke, who analyzed the effects of past recessions on mortality.

Other researchers, noting how educational levels affect income and life expectancy, have projected that the “learning loss” from school closures will ultimately cost this generation of students more years of life than have been lost by all the victims of the coronavirus...

The lockdowns may also have saved some lives, but there’s still no good evidence. The more restrictive the state, the higher the unemployment rate. But there’s no pattern in the rate of Covid-19 mortality. International comparisons yield similar results. One shows that countries with more stringent lockdowns tend to have slightly higher levels of Covid-19 mortality. Another suggests that European countries with stricter lockdowns have performed worse economically while also suffering higher rates of excess mortality...

It seems intuitively obvious that lockdowns would save lives by reducing social interactions and therefore the spread of the virus, but there are other consequences...

Sweden’s cumulative death toll per capita from Covid-19 is now slightly below the European Union’s average and about 20 percent lower than America’s... 

Before you get your knickers in a twist about Sweden, read the lengthy paragraphs supporting the conclusion.

Basically, lockdowns and mandates have hurt us and the push for vaccines will only compound the hurt: 

If a corporation behaved this way, continuing knowingly to sell an unproven drug or medical treatment with fatal side effects, its executives would be facing lawsuits, bankruptcy, and criminal charges. But the lockdown proponents are recklessly staying the course, still insisting that lockdowns work. The burden of proof rests with those imposing such a dangerous policy, and they haven’t met it. There’s still no proof that lockdowns save any lives—let alone enough to compensate for the lives they end.