COVID-19 Roundup: (April 2020)

Apr 22, 2020 | Business, Politics, Sci-Tech

• Dr. Scott W. Atlas in The data is in — stop the panic and end the total isolation (The Hill, April 22, 2000) states five facts that are being ignored by those calling for a "near-total" lockdown:

Fact 1: The overwhelming majority of people do not have any significant risk of dying from COVID-19. Fact 2: Protecting older, at-risk people eliminates hospital overcrowding. Fact 3: Vital population immunity is prevented by total isolation policies, prolonging the problem. Fact 4: People are dying because other medical care is not getting done due to hypothetical projections. Fact 5: We have a clearly defined population at risk who can be protected with targeted measures.

After providing evidence for the above facts he goes on to conclude:

The appropriate policy, based on fundamental biology and the evidence already in hand, is to institute a more focused strategy like some outlined in the first place: Strictly protect the known vulnerable, self-isolate the mildly sick and open most workplaces and small businesses with some prudent large-group precautions. This would allow the essential socializing to generate immunity among those with minimal risk of serious consequence, while saving lives, preventing overcrowding of hospitals and limiting the enormous harms compounded by continued total isolation.

• Jaana Woiceshyn on Why The COVID-19 Economic Lockdowns Must End (CapMag, April 19, 2020):

A pandemic does not alter the role of a government. For example, it can limit the freedom of those individuals who carry the virus for limited periods to protect others, whose right to life would be violated. This could involve testing, tracing contacts, and tracking. When governments are involved in operating health care systems, as they are in most mixed economies, they would isolate nursing home residents and other vulnerable people, increase hospital capacity, and set guidelines for physical distancing—as opposed to violating everybody’s right to liberty by locking down economies.

• Jason Crawford outlines A builder manifesto (Roots of Progress, April 18, 2020):

We need to learn to appreciate progress—both what we’ve already done, and why we can’t stop now. We need to tell the amazing story of progress: how comfort, safety, health, and luxury have become commonplace, and what a dramatic achievement that has been.

• Richard Salsman on why Freedom Is Indivisible, Which Is Why All Types Are Now Eroding (Cap Mag, April 18, 2020):

More recently, in the wake of the Covid-19 virus outbreak, we’ve seen unwarranted, unprecedented violations of all three realms of freedom in America – mandates to close businesses, edicts that people stay in their homes (“shelter in place,” akin to a nationwide house arrest of innocents presumed guilty), decrees against assembling (compelling “social distancing”), orders restricting access to gun shops, even the classification of some street protests (against the illiberal controls) as prohibited because a “non-essential” activity.  We’ve yet to see challenges from the ACLU or court orders staying the rights violations. Why?

• Don Watkins on “The harsh truth about COVID-19” (Medium, April 17, 2020)

The lockdowns, whatever one thinks of them, were never sold to us as a way to eradicate the disease. They were sold as a way to “flatten the curve” so that the medical system didn’t become overwhelmed, leading to *unnecessary* deaths. [...] We must open the economy as fast as we can. And we must do so while managing the disease as best we can. That includes selective isolation for the most vulnerable. (I have family members in this category…and, if it matters, they support re-opening the economy. They recognize that it would be immoral to demand that we sacrifice the whole country to reduce their odds of getting the disease.)

• Alex Epstein’s video “A pro-freedom approach to fighting COVID-19": (Power Hour, April 15, 2020):

• Jason Crawford on why “More Progress, Faster, Is Our Best Defense Against This Pandemic and Future Ones” (LeapMag, April 7, 2020):

If you’re seeking to avoid COVID-19, the hand sanitizer gel you carry in a pocket or purse did not exist until the 1960s. If you start to show symptoms, the pulse oximeter that tests your blood oxygenation was not developed until the 1970s. If your case worsens, the mechanical ventilator that keeps you alive was invented in the 1950s—in fact, no form of artificial respiration was widely available until the “iron lung” used to treat polio patients in the 1930s. Even the modern emergency medical system did not exist until recently: if during the 1918 flu pandemic you became seriously ill, there was no 911 hotline to call, and any ambulance that showed up would likely have been a modified van or hearse, with no equipment or trained staff.

• Fast Grants for COVID-19 via private funding from the Thiel Foundation demonstrates how the free-market funds science:

If you are a scientist at an academic institution currently working on a COVID-19 related project and in need of funding, we invite you to apply for a Fast Grant. Fast Grants are $10k to $500k and decisions are made in under 48 hours. If you wish to apply to grants for scientific or biomedical COVID-19 projects, please apply through FastGrants.org.