David Henderson likes many, but not all, of the remarks made by my colleague Tyler Cowen in Tyler’s recent appearance on Russ Roberts’s EconTalk. A slice from David’s post (original emphasis):
I don’t know if Jeff Tucker said exactly what Tyler said he said, but it doesn’t matter: Jeff Tucker is not one of the authors of the GBD. I had lunch with Jay Bhattacharya on Tuesday and asked him point blank: “Did Jeff Tucker write or edit any part of the GBD?” Jay’s answer: No.
This is not a small issue. Had we focused on protecting the vulnerable and not locking down the young and healthy and keeping children out of school, we would be in a lot better shape today, with fewer COVID deaths of the elderly and less destruction of the economy.
Ethan Yang reports on the especially great harm that lockdowns inflict on young people.
Covid Derangement Syndrome is real.
Anthony Cadman rightly decries the doubling down of Covid hysteria. Two slices:
The Great Covid Lie – that the disease is of such lethal virulence that almost any measure, no matter how repressive, is justified to combat it – has been the settled narrative since the first lockdown began just over a year ago. From that point, it became inevitable that ever more extreme and destructive measures would be introduced, the latest of which is the deeply sinister ‘Covid passports’ initiative.
…..
As disaster is heaped upon disaster, lie upon lie, ever more extreme, unnecessary and authoritarian measures are needed for the maintenance of the hysterical narrative. It is this, rather than some sinister conspiracy, that is now the major political driver behind the Covid passport scheme and all subsequent society-destroying schemes to come: as Covid becomes less virulent, the lie becomes ever more so – the disease could apparently still bounce back, sweeping across a now substantially vaccinated population in some ‘fourth wave’ – no doubt to be followed by a tsunami and subsequently a megatsunami. After all, if restrictions were universally lifted tomorrow and nothing much happened, the lie would be at risk of being exposed. Better instead to double down – and double, triple and quadruple down they will.
There are others who benefit from the propagation and continuation of the Great Covid Lie – those, such as the Machiavellian Tony Blair, who really do relish an increase in authoritarian power, or the media, who from the start prostituted themselves because cheap sensationalism was a bigger money-spinner than maintaining critical faculty, or the scientists given the power of gods over our civilisation, now able to conduct their experiments on an unprecedented scale.
All are ultimately trapped, as are the rest of us, by the same enormous lie.
Here’s good sense from the editors of The Telegraph:
The public might assume the goal of all this red tape is to prevent the entry into Britain of dangerous new variants, but unless one attempts to seal the borders completely, which we are not doing (haulage drivers will still be coming, along with seasonal workers), this is impossible.
A choice has to be made between obedience to the precautionary principle, which can only be enforced with heavy-handed methods – economically disastrous, harmful for mental health, unsustainable – and learning to live with Covid and make personal decisions based upon a balance of risk.
We wonder, however, whether this comes at a time when Britons have ‘lockdown fatigue’ and may be willing to consent to anything in order to restore ‘normality’. This is a slippery slope and there’s no telling where this could lead if law-abiding citizens are expected to show documentation in order to eat out with their families or enjoy an afternoon at the pub.
Julia Hartley-Brewer tangles with a supporter of Britain’s tyrannical Covidocracy.
By contrast, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis let nearly all businesses stay open after May. Florida’s private GDP had shrunk only 1.1% by year-end, dragged down by weak international and domestic tourism. New York’s food and accommodation industry shrank more than twice as much as Florida’s and the most in the U.S.
