{"id":1153,"date":"2022-01-24T22:39:00","date_gmt":"2022-01-25T03:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/paragoninstitute.org\/index.php\/2022\/01\/24\/covid-restrictions-and-lockdowns-failed\/"},"modified":"2023-12-28T12:39:45","modified_gmt":"2023-12-28T17:39:45","slug":"covid-restrictions-and-lockdowns-failed","status":"publish","type":"newsletter","link":"https:\/\/paragoninstitute.org\/newsletter\/covid-restrictions-and-lockdowns-failed\/","title":{"rendered":"COVID Restrictions and Lockdowns Failed"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

Last week marked the one-year anniversary of President Biden\u2019s inauguration, prompting news and commentary about his administration\u2019s handling of major issues, including the COVID pandemic. Coming on the heels of the Omicron variant and the challenges it created, the anniversary generated assessments of our nation\u2019s COVID policies.\u00a0

The public health establishment is now acknowledging that most people will get COVID. Dr. Fauci said on January 12 that Omicron \u201cwill, ultimately, find just about everybody.\u201d While vaccination provides protection from serious illness and death, so too does previous infection. In fact, a recent\u00a0study<\/a>\u00a0finds that prior COVID infection was more protective than vaccination during the Delta wave.\u00a0

Looking back, the public health establishment has been too focused on the perceived benefits of government rules\u2014such as economic lockdowns, school closings, and mask and vaccine mandates\u2014without considering the costs and the harm to individuals and families. The results were misguided policies and real damage.\u00a0

Writing in The Wall Street Journal on January 20, Paragon Public Advisor and former Chairman of the White House\u2019s Council of Economic Advisers\u00a0Tomas Philipson<\/strong><\/a> observed<\/a>\u00a0\u201cthe pandemic\u2019s progression has made clear, public-health officials should aim to do more than merely minimize the spread of disease. They should seek to reduce the total harm caused by both infection and heavy-handed attempts to prevent it.

\u201cReducing the incidence of disease isn\u2019t necessarily desirable if excessive prevention, in the form of lockdowns or school closures, is more costly to society than the damage done by an illness. We don\u2019t close highways to minimize accidental deaths, despite the existence of dangerous drivers. Yet this is exactly what we\u2019re doing when the government intervenes to limit the spread of communicable diseases by, for instance, mandating vaccines that don\u2019t prevent transmission.\u201d

Philipson wrote that \u201ccase counts don\u2019t capture the total burden of a disease. The costs of efforts at avoiding the disease must be quantified and tallied as well.\u201d

Those costs have been disproportionately borne by our nation\u2019s children, and tragically, some school districts are reverting to the failed approach of virtual learning. Dr. Vinay Prasad, who has carefully reviewed evidence of government policies on COVID for nearly two years, calls\u00a0this<\/a>\u00a0\u201ca colossal domestic policy failure of unprecedented scope.\u201d

Worse Economic Outcomes in States with More Restrictive COVID Policies<\/strong>

One clear cost from the government\u2019s response has been the reduction in economic productivity and the work force.\u00a0According<\/a>\u00a0to Joel Zinberg,\u00a0Paragon\u2019s Public Health & American Well-Being Initiative director, there\u00a0are still\u00a03.6 million, or 2.3 percent, fewer jobs<\/a>\u00a0than at the pre-pandemic peak. Zinberg found that states that were \u201cwary of the economic and social costs of restrictive measures\u201d and \u201clargely moved away from lockdowns\u201d fared much better economically than states that maintained more restrictive policies.

According to Zinberg, \u201cOnly four states\u2014Utah, Idaho, Arizona, and Texas\u2014have recovered all their jobs lost to the pandemic, with payrolls rising 3.9, 1.9, 0.2, and 0.2 percent respectively since February 2020.\u00a0All four\u00a0are Republican-led and\u00a0imposed lenient COVID restrictions.

\u201cOther states have not done as well. Jobs in New York, Michigan, and California\u2014three states governed by Democrats and\u00a0notorious for rigid and prolonged lockdowns\u2014are still down 8, 4.7, and 4.7 percent, respectively, compared to February 2020.\u201d

Improving the Public\u2019s Confidence in Government COVID Policy\u00a0<\/strong>

Public confidence in the public health establishment has suffered, and the public is increasingly souring on the government\u2019s covid response. According a CBS News YouGov\u00a0p<\/a>oll<\/a>\u00a0reported on January 16, 57% of Americans find that public health officials\u2019 information about COVID-19 has been confusing \u2013 up from 47% in October 2021. The poll also found that 64% of Americans believe the \u201cU.S. dealing with coronavirus [is] going badly.\u201d

Writing in City Journal on January 19, Dr. Prasad\u00a0discussed<\/a>\u00a0examples of how \u201cThroughout the pandemic, public-health officials have omitted uncomfortable truths, made misleading statements, and advanced demonstrably false assertions.\u201d

Paragon Public Advisor and former White House official\u00a0Doug Badger<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0took specific aim at problems with the Centers for Disease Control in a\u00a0piece<\/a>\u00a0in The Federalist on January 21. According to Badger, \u201cTens of millions of Americans who have relied on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention\u2019s advice on dealing with COVID-19 are now adrift,\u201d their trust shattered by high infection rates, unsupported claims, and the politicization of the pandemic.

\u201cWhile we can\u2019t control the biological path of the pandemic, we can begin to address its cultural and political effects,\u201d wrote Badger. \u201cThose who have called attention to the chasm between the government\u2019s COVID prescriptions and the evidence behind them should seek to heal the divisiveness. . .

\u201cWe should acknowledge the fears and frustrations of Americans on the far side of the cultural divide, tone down our rhetoric about theater and virtue-signaling, and seek to bridge the cultural and political chasm that the president seems determined to widen and perpetuate.\u201d

Paragon Public Advisor Marty Makary Appointed to Key Health Position in Virginia<\/strong>

Finally, a well-deserved congratulations to Paragon Public Advisor\u00a0Dr. Marty Makary<\/strong><\/a>,<\/strong>\u00a0who has been selected by new Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin to lead his medical advisory team.\u00a0

A press release announcing the appointment said Youngkin will \u201creceive frequent updates from his independent, objective medical advisory team, who are experts from the medical and public health community.\u201d

Dr. Makary is an outstanding choice for this advisory position. In addition to being a Paragon public advisor, he is a professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Johns Hopkins Carey School. He also has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine and is Editor-in-Chief of Medpage Today.\u00a0

Dr. Markary has been widely published on numerous health care topics. His recent articles are available on Paragon Health Institute\u2019s\u00a0website<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"featured_media":98,"template":"","categories":[754],"tags":[390],"location":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCOVID Restrictions and Lockdowns Failed<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The public health establishment has been too focused on the perceived benefits of government rules without considering the costs and the harm to individuals and families.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/paragoninstitute.org\/newsletter\/covid-restrictions-and-lockdowns-failed\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"COVID Restrictions and Lockdowns Failed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The public health establishment has been 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