- Thu Sep 24, 2020 8:33 am
#127509
Dr. Ioannidis has made these points:
1) Lockdowns were initially justified because the virus then had an estimated 3.4 percent fatality rate and might have matched the 1918 pandemic. However, it is now known that undetected infections constitute the vast majority.
2) Most covid-19 deaths were elderly. Average age at death in the 1918 flu was 28.
3) Even though covid is much less threatening than initially thought, it was awful in nursing homes in NY and PA. Extreme measures are needed re older folks.
4) Lockdowns of entire populations have questionable added benefits. The lockdown to flatten the curve notion was based on data from the 1918 pandemic which had an infection fatality rate 100 times higher than covid.
5) School closings can increase the exposure of frail relatives to children, and a lost year of education such as 2020 is harmful to society.
6) Lockdowns can force low-wage essential workers to take higher risks. And, while affluent citizens remain home in big houses, the poor are at higher risk in cramped housing.
7) Lockdowns cause patients with acute conditions to avoid seeking care. And delay ongoing treatment for patients with chronic conditions. A few hospitals were busy, but others sat idle.
Lockdowns increase the risk of suicide, domestic violence, and child abuse. Isolation may foment societal disintegration.
9) Because power tends to corrupt (Acton), when do lockdowns end? Can constitutional rights be suspended every year during flu season?
10) When little was known about covid-19 and Ferguson was estimating millions of deaths, a desperate choice such as lockdowns could be defended as policy. The curve was flattened and hospital systems were not overwhelmed.
11) Lockdowns were a focus on one risk (covid), but life consists of many risks such as bankruptcy, alcoholism, depression, heart disease, cancer, and anarchy to name a few, Extreme focus on one issue can allow others to fly out of control.
1) Lockdowns were initially justified because the virus then had an estimated 3.4 percent fatality rate and might have matched the 1918 pandemic. However, it is now known that undetected infections constitute the vast majority.
2) Most covid-19 deaths were elderly. Average age at death in the 1918 flu was 28.
3) Even though covid is much less threatening than initially thought, it was awful in nursing homes in NY and PA. Extreme measures are needed re older folks.
4) Lockdowns of entire populations have questionable added benefits. The lockdown to flatten the curve notion was based on data from the 1918 pandemic which had an infection fatality rate 100 times higher than covid.
5) School closings can increase the exposure of frail relatives to children, and a lost year of education such as 2020 is harmful to society.
6) Lockdowns can force low-wage essential workers to take higher risks. And, while affluent citizens remain home in big houses, the poor are at higher risk in cramped housing.
7) Lockdowns cause patients with acute conditions to avoid seeking care. And delay ongoing treatment for patients with chronic conditions. A few hospitals were busy, but others sat idle.
Lockdowns increase the risk of suicide, domestic violence, and child abuse. Isolation may foment societal disintegration.9) Because power tends to corrupt (Acton), when do lockdowns end? Can constitutional rights be suspended every year during flu season?
10) When little was known about covid-19 and Ferguson was estimating millions of deaths, a desperate choice such as lockdowns could be defended as policy. The curve was flattened and hospital systems were not overwhelmed.
11) Lockdowns were a focus on one risk (covid), but life consists of many risks such as bankruptcy, alcoholism, depression, heart disease, cancer, and anarchy to name a few, Extreme focus on one issue can allow others to fly out of control.