But as real-world data came in from places other than China the excuses for poor decisions become thinner, and the ceding of public policy choices to public health officials becomes unforgivable. I say this not only based upon the poor quality of the medical decisions they made–and they made many–but upon my belief that public health officials should never have the last word on any public policy.
That may seem odd to many people; after all, when talking about medical issues shouldn’t we listen to the doctors? Public health officials surely know public health far better than politicians or, God forbid, economists!
True enough. But even assuming that the public health officials knew exactly what they were doing–an assumption clearly not borne out by experience–arranging the affairs of an entire society is not simply a matter of public health. Every decision has costs as well as benefits, and not weighing both can easily mean that decisions made can impose costs far higher than the benefits derived.
Source: Economists should have had more influence in COVID mitigations than doctors – HotAir
In my state, the Governor appointed a Covid advisory panel – 100% from public health and health care. They viewed themselves as the Wizard of Oz, behind the curtain, pulling the strings and levers to control everyone’s lives, in detail. But not only did they have insufficient information, they had no clue what they were doing and caused actual harm including harming both physical and mental health of citizens, put enormous numbers of businesses and people out of business, and ruined children’s education. My state, which already ranks near last in education achievement, fell further behind.
An economist could have told you this would happen, even with only the most modest education in epidemiology. It doesn’t take much research to learn that airborne viruses are impossible to stop once they have begun spreading. They will burn through a population; you can only effect [sic] the rate at which they do so, and only then within limits.
