[townhall.com]

I just got finished reading the above-linked article that was posted by Rams43 a couple of days ago. Because of arguments that I've heard wherein folks have been suggesting that public health orders (i.e. lockdowns, social distancing, face-covers, etc.) are actually more harmful than Covid-19 itself, the title of the piece definitely caught my attention. I decided to post some thoughts on it to this newly-created thread.

The linked article is an opinion piece wherein the author concludes:

Quote

At some point it needs to be recognized that the lockdowns are leading to problems which exceed those of the virus itself. If it continues to be shown that the restrictions put in place in the name of public safety are actually threatening a greater number of the public, then a serious rebuke of these policies is in order.

The piece references three articles (two of which were based on the same study out of Colorado). After reading the three articles (and the underlying study out of Colorado), it's pretty clear that the opinion author engaged in the cherry-picking of information from these sources in order to justify what's clearly a pre-determined conclusion.

I say this because the underlying study out of Colorado that formed the basis of two of the referenced articles, clearly states that they don't have enough information to determine why, during the two week study period there were more deaths attributable to cardiac arrests than to Covid-19.

As a matter of fact, the ones who conducted the study posited various reasons for this happening including: 1) just a general increase in the number of cardiac arrests during those two weeks; 2) prohibitions against elective procecures at hospitals (clearly lockdown related); and, 3) a general avoidance of hospitals out of fear of contracting the virus there.

I place emphasis on the 3rd hypothesis because avoidance of hospitals out of fear of contracting Covid-19 was mentioned several times in the 3rd referenced article that focused on cardiac issues in Europe (in particular, Italy and Spain).

But the referenced pieces do little to support the notion that lockdowns lead to more deaths than Covid-19.

Just because you want to believe it doesn't make it true.