SIP = Shelter in Place

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, many countries implemented social distancing and SIP policies. These policies are designed to slow COVID-19 transmission by limiting physical interaction. While early U.S. and international evidence suggests that these policies did slow COVID-19 transmission (Aleman et al. 2020; Courtemanche et al. 2020), the longer-run and more comprehensive effects of these policies are not fully understood (Berry et al. 2021). We used data from 43 countries and all U.S. states and find the introduction of SIP policies did not lead to reductions in excess deaths.

….

Nonetheless, the implementation of SIP policies does not appear to have met the aim of reducing excess mortality.

Source: w28930.pdf

Lock ups did not reduce deaths but at least they put millions out of work, closed permanently up to 40% of small businesses, and destroyed children’s education. Guess we will call this a success then?

These findings had been observed pre-Covid-19, in the Henderson, et al, study from 2006, an 2008 ACLU report on the effects of pandemic lock ups, and the WHO report on pandemic influenza, published in October 2019.

But like so many things now days, the experts fell victim to the “But it’s different this time” mentality.

Coldstreams