No effect on Covid-19 deaths, but devasting effects on children kicked out of school for a couple of years and a good portion of the adult population still dealing with depression and angst from having their lives blown up.
With all the restrictions, mandates, and control coming from the government at numerous levels, this study from Johns Hopkins University finds a collective impact of less than 1% on the Covid-19 death rate. Actually, saying it’s around 1% is generous. The real number they came up with was an improvement of… 0.2%.
Was it worth it to set children back in years of education for a 0.2% improvement in Covid-19 deaths? Some people would say yes, and those people are free to stay in self-lockdown for the rest of their lives.
The results are quite grim actually, what did we give up as a society for a 0.2% improvement on Covid-19 mortality:
“We find no evidence that lockdowns, school closures, border closures, and limiting gatherings have had a noticeable effect on COVID-19 mortality,” the researchers wrote.
But the research paper said lockdowns did have “devastating effects” on the economy and contributed to numerous social ills.
“They have contributed to reducing economic activity, raising unemployment, reducing schooling, causing political unrest, contributing to domestic violence, and undermining liberal democracy,” the report said.
“Such a standard benefit-cost calculation leads to a strong conclusion: lockdowns should be rejected out of hand as a pandemic policy instrument,” the paper concluded.
The wake of lockdowns, and school closures, in particular, has yet to be fully measured. Children fell behind at record rates, many will never catch up. Some dropped out of the education system entirely, destined to be set back years in life having been sacrificed on the Covid alter to keep teachers’ unions happy.
School administrators pushed for virtual learning knowing full well the results would be terrible for children. The end result is that few actually learned anything.
Top students turned into average students. Average students turned into struggling students. Struggling students turning into failing students. The rest simply disappeared from the system entirely.
Many people pointed out the obvious flaws in the lockdown theory in 2020. You can’t account for behavior when you close a door since some people decide to just open a window instead:
“Lockdowns have limited peoples’ access to safe (outdoor) places such as beaches, parks, and zoos, or included outdoor mask mandates or strict outdoor gathering restrictions, pushing people to meet at less safe (indoor) places,” they wrote. “Indeed, we do find some evidence that limiting gatherings was counterproductive and increased COVID-19 mortality.”
Humans are born free unless and until the world around them imposes limits. It was laughable to expect people to just sit down, shut up, and stop moving for a year. or two Lots of people did, and they probably accomplished nothing by doing so other than causing their children to fear the outside world.
Truthfully, someone should be held criminally liable for some of the extended lengths children were denied a quality education. Closing schools in the spring of 2020 was understandable to an extent. Closing them in the fall of 2020 and not opening until the fall of 2021 became a form of abuse.
There is no easy way to make up for the lost generation of learning which took place, and still takes place in some locations to this day with virtual learning still the norm in some instances.
Just remember, children suffered lifelong learning impairments and educational deficits for what amounted to a 0.2% improvement in Covid-19 deaths.
But, kids can’t vote, so why would the politicians or health bureaucrats care?
