Lock-downs or quarantines have throughout the ages been used as a policy for managing infectious illness. During epidemics and pandemics we have segregated the sick and the susceptible.
However the unprecedented response to Covid-19 has been to also severely restrict the healthy, and those in low risk age brackets.
This is a new experiment on a global scale which has had severely damaging effects on mental and physical health, relationships, education, employment, and widespread permanent closure of small and medium businesses.
The full impact will not be able to be identified for many years.
The effectiveness of lock-down strategies in reducing the viral impact has never been supported by evidence-based science.
As the wave of deaths and hospitalizations subsides, many governments are increasingly mandating severe restrictions on freedom of movement.
It is becoming clearer that we are having Unalienable rights over-ridden by increasingly authoritarian dictates.
Draconian policies can not be justified.
Videos:
On April 19, 2023, Robert F. Kennedy announced his intention to challenge Biden in the Democratic primary for president. As part of his announcement speech in Boston, he spoke bluntly about Covid lockdowns
August, 2021
Research and articles:
“We show that prolonged school closures led to a substantial deterioration in youth health-related quality of life, precipitating early signs of mental health problems. The effects were most severe among boys, younger adolescents, and families with limited living space. “
From the opening paragraph of the “Results” section:
“The results show that each additional week of school closure is associated with a decrease in HRQoL (0.107 SD, P < 0.001) and increases in psychosomatic symptoms (0.072 SD, P < 0.05), behavioral and emotional health problems (0.089 SD, P < 0.05), and depressive symptoms (0.079 SD, P < 0.05). For the time period under study, there are no effects on anxiety symptoms.”
HRQoL = health-related quality of life
The debate as to how much “pandemic” harm was caused not by a virus, but rather by the dystopian response to the perceived threat of a virus, has been raging for some time now.
Jonathan tweeted about this last year in relation to Lombardy and that thread was turned into this Panda article.
An analysis of the spatial characteristics of deaths during the spring 2020 wave in Northern Italy was carried out by him along with a Panda colleague; this suggested that it looked nothing like a spreading virus, and more like the sudden imposition of a policy response.
Reviewing and synthesising 600 publications focused on the impact of the pandemic response, Dr. Kevin Bardosh of the Universities of Washington and Edinburgh concluded that these wide and deep societal harms “should challenge the dominant mental model of the pandemic response”.
This paper in Taylor & Francis Online concludes that the longer students were out of school, the less they learned. It is estimated that for every week that schools were closed, learning levels declined by almost 1% of a standard deviation. This means that a 20 week closure, for example, would reduce learning outcomes by 0.20 standard deviation, almost one year of schooling.
In South Asia, for instance, a 2021 United Nations report estimates that lockdowns resulted in some 239,000 maternal and child deaths.
This is a figure higher than the total COVID-19 deaths in the region to date and by now likely might have doubled.
In 2020 alone, worldwide, 267,000 children under age 5 in low- and middle-income countries perished because of lockdowns.
“The comparative analysis of different countries showed that the assumption of lockdowns’ effectiveness cannot be supported by evidence—neither regarding the present COVID-19 pandemic, nor regarding the 1918–1920 Spanish Flu and other less-severe pandemics in the past,” argue the researchers.
India:
United States:
“To the contrary, we find a positive association between SIP (shelter in place, a US term for
lockdowns) policies and excess deaths,” four economists and scientists from the University of
Southern California and the Rand Corporation conclude in a working paper for the National Bureau
of Economic Research.
Mental Health–Related Emergency Department Visits Among Children Aged 18 Years During the COVID-19 Pandemic..pdf
Revolver Exclusive Study: COVID-19 Lockdowns Over 10 Times More Deadly Than Pandemic Itself
Tech Titans and Censorship—The Same People Profiting From The Quarantine Are Censoring Criticisms of It • Children’s Health Defense
Australia:
31 July, 2021 – Health experts warn alcoholism rising across regional Australia as Dry July comes to an end
“1 in 5 Australians increased alcohol use during the lockdowns, “We know the statistics. We know that 93 per cent of hospital admissions at the weekend are alcohol-related. We know domestic violence is hugely related to alcohol consumption. We know it’s bad, and people are realising that.”
“Ian Hickie, Australia’s former health commissioner and head of the Brain and Mind Centre, projected the number of annual deaths by suicide in Australia to rise from 3,000 to up to 4,500, with young people comprising nearly half that number.
“We are facing a situation where between an extra 750 and 1500 suicides may occur annually, this in addition to the 3000-plus lives that are lost to suicide already every year,” Hickie said.”
Europe:
The Coronapas will be completely abolished by October.
Sweden:
Canada:
August 01, 2021
As the fallout numbers from the worldwide lockdowns are weighing heavily in Canada, with statisticians reporting that four times as many Canadians died from indirect causes of the lockdown than the number that died from COVID itself.
A government report, “Provisional Death Counts and Excess Mortality,” shows that 5,535 Canadians under the age of 65 died between January 2020 to April 2021 because of “indirect consequences” due to the pandemic. During that same time frame, the report says 1,380 Canadians in the same age group died because of COVID-19 itself. Indirect consequences include “delayed medical procedures, increased substance use or a decline in deaths attributable to other causes, such as influenza,” according to the report.
Shutdowns forced more Canadians to stay at home and the cancellation or postponement of medical procedures and vital support services, while many businesses were forced to close. During that time, Statistics Canada confirmed that substance abuse increased as did the mortality rate.
Most of the people who died from COVID-19 in Canada were over the age of 85 and had dementia, Alzheimer’s, chronic heart disease or other pre-existing “cardiovascular and respiratory conditions,” the report said.
SOURCES:
Statistics Canada July 18, 2021
Statistics Canada Provisional Death Counts and Excess Mortality report July 12, 2021
Japan:
Taiwan:
Opinions:
Writes Oz’s Substack
Aug 10: