Lockdown in hindsight
13 June 2023
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In the Media
In the Media
Lifestyle Economics
15 November 2024
Jamie Whyte writes for The Critic
IEA Senior Research Fellow Jamie Whyte has written in The Critic discussing Did Lockdowns Work? The Verdict on Covid Restrictions, a new book published by the IEA on the impacts of lockdown.
Jamie wrote:
“The report describes the results of a meta-analysis of the life-saving effects of strict lockdowns, such as the one imposed in the UK (compared to a baseline of the liberal Swedish response). It shows that they reduced Covid deaths by only 3.2 per cent. In other words, the lockdowns saved 1,700 Brits.
“When Boris Johnson imposed the lockdown, he experienced just 0.0000014 per cent (1 in 70 million) of the costs and benefits of his decision (or would have, if he had obeyed the rules). If you worry about people making decisions when they do not bear all the costs and benefits of them, you should be more alarmed by people making decisions when they bear none of the costs and benefits.
“But that’s what happened. And we got the predictable debacle, as the new IEA book confirms. Its authors conclude that lockdowns should never be a response to pandemics. They’re right. But the implications are wider. The lockdowns were merely a dramatic example of a mistake politicians make all the time.”
Read the full article here.
Jamie wrote:
“The report describes the results of a meta-analysis of the life-saving effects of strict lockdowns, such as the one imposed in the UK (compared to a baseline of the liberal Swedish response). It shows that they reduced Covid deaths by only 3.2 per cent. In other words, the lockdowns saved 1,700 Brits.
“When Boris Johnson imposed the lockdown, he experienced just 0.0000014 per cent (1 in 70 million) of the costs and benefits of his decision (or would have, if he had obeyed the rules). If you worry about people making decisions when they do not bear all the costs and benefits of them, you should be more alarmed by people making decisions when they bear none of the costs and benefits.
“But that’s what happened. And we got the predictable debacle, as the new IEA book confirms. Its authors conclude that lockdowns should never be a response to pandemics. They’re right. But the implications are wider. The lockdowns were merely a dramatic example of a mistake politicians make all the time.”
Read the full article here.
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