Lockdowns don’t work – more evidence rolls in

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A group of highly numerate professionals gathered under the name of PANDA (Pandemics – Data & Analytics) has been sounding the alarm for months that lockdown serves no purpose in saving lives. On its website, it reminds us that in more than 160 days of lockdown, at least 3m jobs have been lost and hundreds of millions of school days have been cancelled. Charities, meanwhile, warn of lockdown poverty – including for many who were previously well-off.

PANDA has taken slack for stinging criticism of Covid-19 case modellers, but its message is being repeated elsewhere. In the US, which has the highest number of Covid-19 deaths, analysis shows that ‘locking down the economy didn’t contain the disease’s spread and reopening it didn’t unleash a second wave of infections’.

The Wall Street Journal, available to BizNews Premium subscribers, quotes analytics firm TrendMacro on ‘logic-defying statistics’. Strict lockdowns correlated with a greater spread of the virus – and a tendency for lighter virus loads where states opened up early, it finds.

Food for thought as South Africa, past its infection spike, remains in a partial lockdown that is debilitating to business activity and causing severe hardship. And, while Covid-19 statistics show that just over 1,200 new positive tests were added yesterday to the total of about 630,000 cases and 114 deaths pushed the number of lives lost to just under 14,300.

PS: Don’t miss the BizNews Thursday noontime webinar with Tim Modise when you can join the discussion on corruption and the state of the nation. His guests are: governance specialist and lawyer Judith February, political analyst Daniel Silke, and Professor Tinyiko Maluleke, senior researcher of politics and theology at the University of Pretoria.

  • Lockdowns are a hot topic, drawing strong opinions, judging from the response to today’s Daily Insider newsletter. Here’s a selection from our inbox:

People are dying; Trump views

I found it astounding that despite all the evidence to the contrary, that you appear by not issuing any type of disclaimed to be supporting Trumpium views on SARS CoV-2/Covid-19.

The people who have died and are still dying, of all ages and many still active players in the business world, are all very dead!

Regards,

John A F
Apologise for supporting lockdown!
Dear Jackie
When will you and Alec apologise for being such enthusiastic supporters of the lockdown, especially quoting the Imperial College data?
You are supposed to be questioning things instead of parroting WHO and Cyril recommendations.
Wny have you not covered how they have dealt with this crisis in Vietnam? in Taiwan? in Sweden? in Switzerland (especially hydroxychloroquine).

Your sources are wrong – strict lockdown works

I think your sources are wrong. I think in Canada we have shown that in the different provinces and territories, the stricter the lockdown, the lower the incidence of Covid 19 with a lower mortality.

Kind regards

Dr DM.

The world is a strange place

Good day to you.

I am not to sure about what is happening in this world.
I am a child of God and you know what did He point out to me. He pointed out to me that He is control and nobody can come pass Him, So let me tell you, if you believe in God nothing is impossible.
My advise to you is to put your faith in our Lord Jesus Christ,  go on your knees and pray for our Country. Spread the word of God amongst our people and you know what you will become the best Journalist in the world.
I Love you my fellow citizen and wish you all the best.
God Bless.
Kind regards
J
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