Lockdowns are thought to “flatten the curve”, to ease the influx of patients into hospitals, and to save lives, but the evidence appears to point to the exact opposite result.
Lockdowns are thought to "flatten the curve", to ease the influx of patients into hospitals, and to save lives, but the evidence appears to point to the exact opposite result.
The table above shows countries listed in descending order of deaths per capita. In the list of the top 20 alone, different countries employed completely different methods of dealing with the virus, and still got much of the same results.
As was spelled out clearly by a recent article on Spiked, the severity and duration of a lockdown doesn't seem to have any positive effect on saving lives, as indicated by deaths per capita.
The US, which supposedly has done a "horrible" job of containing the virus, doesn't appear until #14 on the list, behind or in a statistical dead heat with most of many centralized Western European countries who did have the centralized approach America has supposedly been lacking.
Nowhere to be found in the top 20 is Sweden, which gets a lot of pushback from major media for never having had a strict lockdown. Sweden has even been criticized by its own medical professionals.
However, Sweden, as of the publishing of this article, has been steadily falling down the list, and currently finds itself at number 26:
Sweden is sandwiched between Chile and Colombia, two countries that have had severe and prolonged lockdowns.
In fact, Latin America's two countries which enacted the strictest measures against the virus were Argentina (who is now holding the record for the world's longest quarantine) and Peru. The former sits at 21st place, several spots above Sweden.
The latter is at number 7 in this list, despite having militarized all their major cities. In much of Latin America, to this date, masks are still mandatory, even outside on a deserted street, and this is the way it has been for months on end. Yet Latin America, as can be seen above, is the hardest-hit part of the world as far as deaths per capita is concerned.
On the other hand, the economic social and psychological damage done to the people of the world by the lockdowns is indisputable. Almost every country is expected to experience negative economic growth this year, with few exceptions. And the exceptions are often in non-transparent countries where there is good reason not to trust official data.
School closures have affected children's learning and socializing, and continue to do so. People have died en masse the world over waiting for what in any other year would have been readily-available surgical procedures. Mental illness and suicide are also up in every country. This was especially bad during the above-mentioned world's longest lockdown in Argentina.
Perhaps we should, instead of "leaving things to the experts", consider that the "experts" are authorities in their chosen fields, and not necessarily in evaluating the intersection of advice, expertise, policy and implementation.
Libby’s Desk
Commentary and must-reads from Libby’s desk, straight to your inbox.
TPM Newsletter
The Post Millennial’s top stories, delivered to your inbox.
