Saturday, May 16, 2020

The matter of evidence …

… There Is No Evidence Lockdowns Saved Lives. It Is Indisputable They Caused Great Harm – William M. Briggs. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

What exactly renders this pandemic worse than the 1968-69 Hong Kong Flu pandemic (guess they’re going to have to change the name of that one soon)? It doe not look as if this is going be be anywhere near as bad. But the consequences of the lockdown will be manifest for quite sometime. The burden of proof is on the lockdown enthusiasts and their refusal to, as they used to say, question authority. 

2 comments:

  1. To compare the effectivity of lockdowns, you need to be sure that they're identical, or nearly so, in nature. Nowhere in the article did I find a definition of lockdown, but perhaps I missed it. (Yes, Briggs mentions differences, but they don't seem to be reflected in the Y/N lockdown data tables.)

    Briggs' analysis doesn't seem to take timing into account: how soon was a lockdown initiated?

    Death rate is not the only measure of effectivity/ineffectivity. One of the aims of lockdown has been to slow the speed of transmission in order to safeguard healthcare systems as much as possible.

    You might convince more readers to take Briggs seriously if you didn't speak contemptuously about 'lockdown enthusiasts' who refuse to question authority.

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  2. I'm not trying to convince anybody of anything. I am bringing to people's attention evidence and arguments that run counter to the official position I gather we are all to submit to. Well, it should be pretty clear that the official version of things has not persuaded everybody, and that many of those unpersuaded are quite well qualified to raise questions and objections. All the evidence that is available should be out there, along with arguments pro and con. Then people can think for themselves and make up their own minds. And there certainly are people who seem to be all in for lockdowns and there do seem to be some people who think it is somehow untoward to raise any questions about something that is already having a deleterious effect on people's ives and livelihoods. How dare they protest.

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