Coronavirus Isn't Nearly as Deadly as We Thought. So Why Did the Lockdowns Happen in the First Place?
Article written by Tyler O'Neil in "PJMedia":
Recent studies have shown that the coronavirus has spread much faster than previously thought and that it is far less deadly than previously thought. Antibody tests show rapid spread, while many studies have placed the death toll at less than 1 percent. A Swiss Policy Research study put the rate between 0.1 percent and 0.4 percent. The coronavirus is still a serious pandemic, but these numbers cast grave doubt on the wisdom of temporarily shutting down economies. In fact, they raise the question of why Americans ever thought the virus was deadly enough to enter lockdown.
If global GDP declines by 5%, another 147 million people could be plunged into extreme poverty, according to the International Food Policy Research Institute. A Just Facts study found that coronavirus anxiety, exacerbated by the lockdowns, will likely cost more than seven times the years of life that could possibly be saved from the lockdowns in the United States.
Considering all this damage, why did the lockdowns happen in the first place?
To some degree, Americans were rightly concerned that hospitals would be overwhelmed with coronavirus cases — as hospitals in Northern Italy were. U.S. hospitals were not overwhelmed, however, and even in America’s coronavirus epicenter, New York City, the predicted ventilator shortage crisis never took place. The “inclusive” leaders of New York City were able to force the Christian charity Samaritan’s Purse to shut down its allegedly hateful emergency field hospital less than two months after it opened.
The World Health Organization (WHO) and Dr. Anthony Fauci justified the lockdowns by citing estimated death rates of 3.4 percent and 2 percent. Yet the less than 1 percent death rates have come after funeral home directors blew the whistle on the intentional inflation of coronavirus death counts.
The answer, as with so much regarding the coronavirus crisis, has a great deal to do with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the Chinese Communist Party’s malfeasance during the pandemic.
As the British think tank the Henry Jackson Society (HJS) put it, “From the outset, the CCP tried to censor attempts by Chinese citizens to identify and publicise the truth concerning the origins, nature and dangers of the virus. Not all of these censorship efforts succeeded, and a considerable body of independent, corroborative data came to light.”
According to unpublished, unconfirmed Chinese government reports seen by the South China Morning Post, the first recorded case of the coronavirus dates to November 17, 2019. By December 8, the SCMP documents recorded between 1 and 5 new cases. By December 27, the SCMP
documents showed 181 confirmed cases, and a friend of coronavirus
whistleblower Dr. Li Wenliang recalled that his medical department first
reported the new outbreak to the Wuhan Center for Disease Control on
the 27th.
On December 30, Dr. Li sent a
message to his friends about the outbreak, and the police responded by
investigating his friends. The authorities forced Dr. Li to pledge not
to spread “disruptive rumors.” Meanwhile, by that date, the SCMP documents
recorded 266 cases. Li would go on to die of COVID-19 after contracting
it from his patients. On December 31, China finally reported the
outbreak to the WHO, while claiming there was no evidence of
human-to-human transmission.
On January 1, 2020, a Hubei official ordered
coronavirus tests halted and samples of the virus destroyed. On January
14, the WHO reported some human-to-human transmission, but quickly
retracted the claim, citing Chinese sources. Wuhan was not put under
lockdown until January 22-23. On January 26, Wuhan’s mayor admitted that
5 million people had already left the city.
As the virus began to spread outside of China, confusion abounded. Early reports suggested that the virus would be no more dangerous than the flu, and then Italy happened. Yes, the same outbreak in Northern Italy during which the Chinese Communist Party put out a video encouraging Italians to hug Chinese people to prove they weren’t racist.
In the early days of the
pandemic, China asked other countries for personal protective equipment
(PPE) and received 2.4 billion pieces. In fact, it appears Chinese
officials prevented the WHO from declaring a global emergency at the
time — perhaps in order to hoard as much PPE as possible.
When those countries asked
China for PPE, China extorted them — only sending valuable medical aid
if political leaders agreed to publicly praise Beijing. Chinese companies also sent faulty medical gear and coronavirus antibody tests to European countries, and a new Associated Press investigation revealed
the prevalence of counterfeit masks in America, likely tracing back to a
major Chinese factory. Meanwhile, the Communist Party also prevented U.S. companies from shipping their own medical gear back home, where it is sorely needed.
The novel coronavirus may not have even escaped China had Wuhan locked down earlier, but since the CCP both suppressed information and lied about the virus, it stands to reason that the conflicting medical opinions traced back to China’s malfeasance. This confusion spurred the lockdowns.
There is yet another cause for the lockdowns, however. American state and local governments have given undue authority to health departments in cases of emergency pandemics, and some governors and left-leaning pundits have criticized people who want to end the lockdowns by badgering them as “anti-science.” They echo a “progressive” mindset that places expertise ahead of representative government and ahead of freedom. There is a significant overlap between this view and the increasingly popular “Democratic Socialism.”
Many conservatives fear that Democrats actually want lockdowns like this, partially because they weaken the economy and make it less likely Trump will win in November and partially because they provide an excuse for bureaucrats to exercise control and fundamentally reshape American society. Indeed, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden have tried to twist the coronavirus crisis to their advantage on issues like voting and climate change. Hillary Clinton has said, “This would be a terrible crisis to waste.”
Besides the New York City area, the ongoing lockdowns seem like a power play, justified in the name of science but no longer supported by the best evidence. Americans are protesting, businesses are opening of their own accord, and some counties have insisted they will not prosecute those who violate lockdown orders.
As Americans face the economic fallout of these lockdowns, they will search for someone to blame. They should not blame the medical experts, who were buffeted to and fro by conflicting information. China, however, is number one on that list, and Democrats who sought to use the coronavirus to push their agenda should face the consequences in November.
https://pjmedia.com/columns/tyler-o-neil/2020/05/15/coronavirus-isnt-nearly-as-deadly-as-we-thought-so-why-did-the-lockdowns-happen-in-the-first-place-n394545
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