Lessons for SA: Compelling stats show all Covid-19 lockdowns must end – The Wall Street Journal

Population-wide lockdowns should end, and social distancing is not all it's cut out to be. Governments should rather focus their limited resources on protecting the most vulnerable people instead of squandering them on those who seem to face very little risk, such as children. Held up against this template, based on actual infection and death COVID-19 data, rather than the earlier projection-based research which has dominated the debate, we haven't chosen the most cost-effective, live-saving route, results of four new analyses published in the Wall Street Journal show. It all pivots on the unit of measurement, called the value of a statistical life (VSL), which the arguments behind the new analyses say changes the entire picture; from millions of lives lost, to tens of thousands; from trillions of dollars lost, to mere millions,. Shelter-at-home policies don't so much reduce COVID-19 deaths as delay them, real figures show. The only way to reduce deaths is by delaying them in the first place – and hoping like hell that a vaccine will then prevent the inevitable. Several of our top HIV/Aids veterans are screaming for government to stop wasting C-19 tests on the population and focus them instead on healthcare workers and hospitals. It's all starting to make sense. – Chris Bateman