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.
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