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Our COVID national nightmare began just four years ago, so now is a fitting moment to step back and review what happened and what we have learned as a result. The Committee to Unleash Prosperity, headed up by my good friend Steve Moore, recently published a study which compiles all that we have learned about COVID and the egregious attempts of many to deal with it. This needs to be widely distributed. I've summarized the 10 major lessons learned here:
- Leaders Should Calm Public Fears, Not Stoke Them
- Lockdowns Do Not Work to Substantially Reduce Deaths or Stop Viral Circulation
- Lockdowns and Social Isolation Had Negative Consequences that Far Outweighed Benefits
- Government Should Not Pay People More Not to Work
- Shutting Down Schools Was a Major Policy Mistake With Tragic Effects on Children, Especially the Poor
- Masks Were of Little or No Value and Possibly Harmful
- Government Should Not Suppress Dissent or Police the Boundaries of Science
- The Real Hospital Story Was Underutilization
- Protect the Most Vulnerable
- Warp Speed: Deregulate But Don’t Mandate
The 48-page study, authored by Scott Atlas, Steve Hanke, Phil Kerpen and Casey Mulligan, is chock-full of charts and footnotes. We cannot allow government to repeat these grievous errors ever again. Print this out and give it to your children.
If you haven't already, do subscribe to Steve's excellent newsletter Hotline (it's free). It comes out every weekday and is always full of interesting information that you might not see elsewhere.
22 comments:
All known before Covid showed up
Missing is you can not effectively for a respiratory disease that mutates and you can't develop a safe vaccine in 9 months. The Covid shots have been the least safe and least effective shots in history There is no statistical evidence to show they saved any lives. And much evidence their serious adverse side effects were 50x worse than any prior vaccine
I think Scott Atlas would know that and I hope the vaccine did not escape criticism..
I always forget something!
Leftists learned that scary boogeyman like Covid enabled them to enact their beloved fascism for a few years. A better boogeyman than global warming.
A couple of very obvious items that those in power knew about, but chose to be tyrannical instead of "following the science"- related to children, which makes it especially evil.
1. their guidance about masks was riddled with errors, especially with respect to children. Having significant occupational training in respiratory protection, I can say that when Tony Fauci said it only makes sense to wear more masks, and in fact did so, he exposed his ignorance. Use the www to find out about this. The testing has been done and just wearing more masks is not the method to use for greater protection- except for masks with a specific type of engineering/design. A properly fit N-95 mask can't be used like this- it won't allow enough air to breath.
2. Masks are like tennis rackets- only as good as the person using them. Children could not possibly be expected to use a mask properly- adults have to be extremely careful to do it right.
There's more, but I'll leave it at that.
Masks can not block tiny viral aerosols no matter how many you wear. That includes N95 masks. There is no honest study in histiry that ever proved masks had any statistically significant positive effect on respiratory viruses. Two masks will just reduce your ability to exhale CO2 which is not healthy
The only purpose for masks outside an operating room is to identify the stupid people who think masks prevent transmission of viruses
In my first comment part of my intended sentence "disappeared". The corrected beginning of the sentence is:
Missing from the article is the fact that you can not effectively vaccinate for a respiratory virus that mutates ...
I'm happy to report that this study is getting great publicity, today appearing in the WSJ.
Data quality- CPI-
Larry Summers citing a paper doing CPI calculations like they did prior to 1990- which includes interest rates/borrowing costs. Bottom line- consumers respond to these costs more than is currently captured in these CPI data.
https://twitter.com/LHSummers/status/1762607548828360798/photo/1
An issue with the 'study' is that it is an ideological political manifesto.
For fun, look here (compare Covid deaths between Your Great Country and Canada):
https://ourworldindata.org/covid-deaths?country=USA~CAN
Can you figure out objectively why there was a significant difference?
First do no harm.
https://fee.org/articles/laissez-faire-sweden-had-the-lowest-mortality-in-europe-from-2020-2022-new-analysis-shows/
Concerning Sweden, at the margin, compared to Canada, Sweden was slightly more 'open' at various times but the difference, effectively and overall, was not that great.
So using the above ourworldindata (adding Sweden) for reference, Sweden had more Covid deaths than Canada especially during certain periods. It's not surprising because Covid is...a contagious respiratory virus (not a political animal).
Something that helped Sweden is the relatively high vaccine deployment (similar to Canada and superior to the US, especially over time).
The US, despite some mandates and other measures from above, effectively, was 'open' similar to Sweden (but in a more heterogeneous way; viruses 'love' that). So because of the unnecessary polarization, the US had relatively high Covid morbidity and mortality, relatively high restraints on life and paid a relatively high cost (mostly printed money that caused consumer inflation with a lag).
Are people learning from their mistakes with a political manifesto?
Something that helped Sweden is the relatively high vaccine deployment (similar to Canada and superior to the US, especially over time).
Wild leftist speculation
And wrong.
There is no correlation of all cause mortality and excess mortality and Covid vaccines in any nation.
The claim that Covid vaccines saved lives is false.
The claim that hospitalization rates were reduced can not be proven because many Covid patient in hospitals checked in for other reasons and were later declared to be covid patients. If they entered the hospital for a heart ailment, they coyld end up being called a Covid patient.
Almost every government claim about Covid, Covid shots and masks was false.
There were more deaths US deaths with Covid in 2021 with vaccins than in 2020 with no vaccines.
The posts above contains various non-validated claims.
There is overwhelming evidence (peer-reviewed, many independent sources, solid scientific work) that vaccines prevented Covid mortality and morbidity.
One example: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmra2206573
Many many more if necessary...
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"There is no correlation of all cause mortality and excess mortality and Covid vaccines in any nation."
This is another unsupported claim. If any solid evidence, please provide in order to allow fundamental discussion.
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Even the biased 'study' referred to above accepts that vaccines were effective.
One brilliant scientist followed the science and created the statistics for efficacy of the injections, and deaths by difference causes, since April of 2020. This is difficult to understand statistical analysis.
Do not expect anyone who believes that mRNA injections can be a vaccine during an outbreak to read this deep material.
https://theethicalskeptic.com/2024/03/07/the-state-of-things-pandemic-week-50-2023/
@Chief11
I've been periodically following the ethical skeptic. There are some interesting thoughts but the evidence typically lacks transparency. There are several other potential problems also..
Concerning the referenced link, can you provide your level of understanding about the concepts of lag adjustments and pull-forward effects that the author mentions?
Excellent commentary.
I am still bewildered at the government response to C19---and the atrocious government lies and heavy-handed censorship regarding the origins of C19.
What I find bewildering is the following.
If your aim is for a Republican win at all costs and assuming it will be a tight race, why, during a pandemic (a non-political respiratory virus that spreads, makes sick and kills), would you favor policies (individual or collective) that will preferentially kill the ones who could make the marginal difference in selected counties and states?
It's an objective question looking for a rational answer.
In Canadian language, the question is: Why would you score in your own goal?
Because of ideological blindness?
Read the following if interested (there are many more along the same lines):
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10684792/
For the people who did not bother studying all cause mortality statistics and excess death estimates, you may be brainwashed by the leftist biased nass nedia..
Assuming CDC all cause mortality data are accurate, the EXPECTED sharp decline of all cause mortality after 2020 did not happen from covid shots
Since Covid is the best explanation for the +17% spike of US all cause mortality in 2020, versus 2019, any shot that reduced Covid deaths should have had a significant effect in 2021.
Such an effect on all cause mortality is entirely imaginary, a fig newton of covid shot cheerleaders ... who have all taken the shots and will never admit they were fooled: Very unsafe and very ineffective.
With the latest Covid variant the shots are proving counterproductive. There were a higher percentage of Omicron infections among the vaccinated than among the unvaccinated, adjusted for age differences.
On a personal level every friend covid vaccinated has either had Omicron or Covid post vaccination, a much higher percentage than the 10% not vaccinated.
My wife and I are not vaccinated because we were smart enough to avoid a rushed to market vaccine -- developed in 9 months when 10 years with a 98% failure rate is typical.
We have not had Covid, Omicron. influenza or even a common cold in over four years. Our vaccine is Vitamin D, Vitamin C, Zinc and Quercetin.
We try not to laugh when a friend who has had her covid shot and two boosters came down with Omicron for the third time. She is "absolute sure" she would have been in worse shape with no shots. Three infections in two years later.
Omicron and similar variants have such a low infection mortality rate, similar to a common cold, that they should be called a common cold. The Influenza IFR is 10 times high and the Covid IFR is 100 times higher.
There was never a logical reason for a Covid shot or booster based on faith, rather a smart decision based on facts, data and logic. Anyone who gets a covid shot now is a fool.
.
^Now, the benefit of covid vaccines is getting similar to the protection for the flu.
However, during 2021 and 2022, the US did quite poorly (apologies, this is what the data clearly shows...) for Covid hospitalizations and deaths, especially during the delta and also the omicron waves.
Look at the previous historical data submitted above.
Look at the NEJM article referred to above.
Look at the following, comparing risk of being unvaccinated during the more critical phases, just spend some time studying what happened to the various relevant age groups.
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/united-states-rates-of-covid-19-deaths-by-vaccination-status?country=~80%2B
Vaccines worked incredibly well and have been shown to be very safe (apologies again but this is strongly supported by real data).
Have you noticed that some contagious diseases which had been essentially eradicated like measles are threatening to come back as a result of growing 'fear' and gradually less vaccination coverage at the population/community level?
Scott,
I was so wrong during the entire COVID period and you were so right. My entire perspective on how I view MSM, the government and so much more has completely changed.
^What's the meaning of lessons learned?
https://scottgrannis.blogspot.com/2020/03/maybe-its-not-pandemic-after-all.html
!
Moderate Voice falsely claimed
"Vaccines worked incredibly well and have been shown to be very safe (apologies again but this is strongly supported by real data).
The data clearly show the mRNA shots did not prevent infections, did not prevent spread, did not save lives, but the data on hospitalizations are not accurate enough for a conclusion, If deaths Covid did not get reduced, then hospitalizations most likely did not get reduced.
All databases of adverse reactions, from US VAERS to Yellow Card in the UK, show serious adverse side effects were about 50 times higher than any other vaccine with related data since 1990. This is not a close call.
In summary you are either brainwashed or clueless about the Covid vaccines and that is sad. When the next pandemic hits you will probably be the first to demand mandatory shots, mandatory lockdowns and mandatory mask wearing. Just like a good leftist fascist.
While you hide behind a moniker and spout nonsense, my name was always available by clicking on the name of my blog Honest Climate Science Blog above my comments. A blog with over 730,000 lifetime page views.
Unlike your "leftist trained parrot" approach, I am proud of my independent research into the Covid shots, and share what I have learned with others.
Safe shots?
Effective shots?
You must be kidding!
Since the Covid shots do not create strong enough antibodies that quickly fight infections, so that the patient has no idea he or she was infected, they do not create immunity like traditional vaccines do. Therefore, it is dishonest to call Covid mRNA shots vaccines.
Influenza shots provide temporary immunity with roughly 40% to 60% effectiveness. Calling them vaccines stretched the traditional definition of a vaccine.
Richard Greene
(BS, MBA)
Bingham Farms, Michigan
^Your post reads like a ideological political manifesto and the aim to to shift the reasoned debate to personal attacks.
You do not bring data or arguments to help build a bridge.
Can you comment on:
1-
https://scottgrannis.blogspot.com/2020/03/maybe-its-not-pandemic-after-all.html
2-
Scott Atlas' opinions voiced around the same time about the same issues
?
The title of the thread is "Lessons learned".
??!!
Incredible but true.
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