Economists warn of 'widespread costs' from lockdown:
Blanket restrictions on economic activity should be lifted and replaced with measures targeted specifically at groups most at risk, say economists.
[...] They argue that while the extent to which the lockdown contributed to a subsequent slowing in the rate of new infections and deaths is not easy to estimate precisely, it seems clear that it did contribute to these public health objectives.
However, they say it is "very far from clear" whether keeping such tight restrictions in place for three months until the end of June when they began to be lifted was warranted, given the large costs. They say that the costs of carrying on with such a lockdown are likely to have become significantly greater than its benefits.
Debate over the global dilemma continues.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Grishnakh on Thursday July 30 2020, @04:21PM (2 children)
Judging from Europe there seems to be a way to solve this. Maybe not perfect, but at least it kinda keeps stuff going so far.
The solution is really pretty obvious. All you have to do is have a government composed of people who aren't complete lunatics and incompetent morons.
If you elect a government of people who are generally reasonably intelligent and not a bunch of nutcases, they'll probably figure out how to handle a pandemic reasonably well. If you elect a government of people who demonstrate utter incompetence at everything they do, then why would you expect them to handle a pandemic competently?
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Friday July 31 2020, @05:04PM
So I guess then we were just lucky over here that we narrowly dodged that bullet by having an election last year that kicked our populist loons off the government bench...
(Score: 2) by dry on Monday August 03 2020, @03:56AM
My Province has done well due to the government stepping back and letting our head of health run the response to the pandemic. She's pretty good and the government knows it.
Saw an article a while back that pointed out the countries with female leaders have done the best, compared to similar countries. Ireland vs New Zealand, Germany vs the UK, Pakistan vs Bangladesh. The theory was that women are more likely to put lives ahead of the economy.