Lockdowns Kill, Exhibit Z

Lockdowns Kill, Exhibit Z

By Tom Woods

August 22, 2020

 From the Tom Woods Letter:

The side effects of the lockdowns keep getting harder to ignore.
Dr. Brian Stauffer is head of cardiology at Denver Health. He and his colleagues wanted to figure out why the number of people arriving at the hospital suffering from cardiac arrest had plummeted in recent months.
Surely, dear reader, you know where this is going.

The Invisible Enemy Garrett, Mr. Gregory L... Buy New $26.94 (as of 05:21 EDT - Details) According to the Colorado Sun:
Looking at data on ambulance calls in Denver, they found that, while overall calls for service went down during the stay-at-home period, the number of people dying from cardiac arrests at home shot up.
Stauffer’s team found that cardiac arrests at home in Denver more than doubled in the two weeks after the statewide stay-at-home order was issued compared with historical averages. Even compared with more recent data, the weekly average of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests jumped to 46 during those two weeks, versus 26 or 27 in the three months prior.
Stauffer and his colleagues found that the number of people in Denver who died of cardiac arrests at home in the two weeks following the statewide stay-at-home order was greater than the total number of people who died of COVID-19 in the city during that time.
Oh, but “listen to the science,” everybody!
According to the “listen to the science” crowd, “science” demands lockdowns. Apart from the zero connection between lockdowns and health outcomes, the bigger issue is this: “science” doesn’t tell you how you should decide between pouring all resources into COVID-19 while leaving horrific wreckage — including massive loss of life — everywhere else.
It is rank superstition to think “the science” could possibly — or is even intended to — answer a question like this. Thinking, Fast and Slow Daniel Kahneman Best Price: $3.95 Buy New $8.01 (as of 09:05 EST - Details)
Science can inform our decision-making, naturally, but it obviously can’t tell us what we should value or how we should prioritize our various goals.
Not to mention: these days “the science” seems to be all about pretending there are no trade-offs, no competing goals.
Yesterday I wrote to you about the schools, and the day before that about the massive spike in suicidal ideation among the youth.
The wreckage keeps piling up, and our leaders obviously have no idea what the endgame is.
What else can we do after all this fact-free nonsense except live, and ignore these people as much as we can?
If that sounds good to you, join me in my community of normal people, for learning and camaraderie: