Do Lockdowns Work?

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Probably most are----but each country's definition of a "lockdown" is frequently vastly different from another country's.

France, at least at one time, forced people to fill out a form in order to go out for a walk....

The following Wiki link provides a listing of countries and territories without lockdowns.

COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns

Many places had short lockdowns at the beginning and then lifted them. My state Indiana had a lockdown at the beginning of the pandemic but that lockdown was lifted months ago. Instead we have mask mandates and social distancing requirements.

At the beginning of the pandemic, the scope was unknown. Some compared it with the very deadly Spanish Flu. Others indicated the U.S would suffer millions of deaths by summer. Some of the estimates were wildly exaggerated. Thus governments erred in the side of cautions.

Nearly 350,000 deaths is nothing to sneeze at......but it's not millions, it must be said.

In NYC, it's not as stringent as the lockdowns from March to June. But we have no indoor dining, and no movies. Gatherings are severely limited----especially indoor gatherings.

Gyms and hairstylists remain open, though.

We are not in a "lockdown," per se. But you never know......

Do lockdowns work? Not really. Lockdowns ruin economies, and it may temporarily lower the COVID rate but as soon as restrictions ease the virus just spikes again, usually more worse than before the lockdown. If we hadn't had any lockdowns, the virus probably wouldn't be as severe as it is now (in the UK).

The UK is in lockdown once again. Is this really going to make the virus go away? I think not. As soon as the restrictions are eased, the virus will spike again.

It's what we call "the snowball effect".

They banned alcohol sales here again and have a night curfew which does make the road safer for the overnight bus coaches and long distance truckers... But the beach ban in all but one province is a dumb idea because apart from the fact that fresh air and sunshine are good at fighting Covid and outdoor activities are safe, mental health should be considered too. Usually, lockdowns are just window dressing in a bureaucratic attempt to look proactive.

Peter Hitchens penned three modern fables in his column last week.

The first is The Man Who Burned Down His House To Get Rid Of A Wasps’ Nest. In this, citizens see their neighbour doing this mad thing and rush to try to stop him.

But he refuses to be dissuaded, shouting as he throws petrol on the flames ‘Well, what would you have done?’ while his neighbours shout back ‘Not that, anyway!’ until the entire street is burned to embers, while the unharmed wasps buzz round his silly blond head.

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The next is The Surgeon And The Verruca, in which a man comes to see his doctor with a verruca. ‘That’s a really terrible verruca,’ says the medic. ‘The only thing I can do is cut off your leg.’

The man is not sure about this but the doctor tells him that this is an advanced new treatment and that without it, the verruca will probably be fatal.

His assistant, an eminent sage, produces reams of figures which seem to prove this. The man submits and duly wakes up with one leg. Filled with remorse, he questions the surgeon’s wisdom.

‘Well,’ stammers the sawbones defensively. ‘Your verruca’s gone, hasn’t it?’ He then adds sternly: ‘Actually, I should have cut your leg off sooner because look, there’s now a second verruca on your remaining foot and the other leg will have to come off too.’ The sage proclaims: ‘He’s right, you know,’ and out comes the saw again.

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And the third is the story of The Great King Who Thought He Could Stop Autumn. In this, a prince who has longed to be World King since boyhood ascends to the throne. He finds his royal duties surprisingly dull until a courtier rushes in to say: ‘Panic! The leaves are falling from the trees! Something must be done!’ And so the King orders his soldiers out into the forests to glue the leaves back on the trees.

Advisers who grumble that the fall of the leaves is a normal event called autumn are shouted down, dismissed and accused of being callous and cruel to leaves. The King spends all the money in the country on glue, ladders and soldiers’ pay.

And after he has made his kingdom bankrupt and autumn takes place as usual, he says: ‘We should have acted sooner.’