John Stossel: COVID: Who Was Right?

COVID has been around for three years.

The pandemic began at the beginning. “experts” shouted: “Stay home!” “Close schools!” “Wash your hands!” “Disinfect countertops!”

Disinfecting countertops and washing your hands did not make a difference. What about locking down schools?

Gov. Ron DeSantis lifted Florida’s lockdown. “Acting irresponsibly!” MSNBC’s Dr. Vin Gupta roared. Reporters praised New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo was praised for his lockdowns.

CNN: Andrew’s brother Chris exclaimed, “I am wowed by what you did!” He stated that Florida was, in contrast. “in such dire straits.”

However, New York and Florida had roughly the same number of deaths when adjusted for population. Florida had more deaths than New York due to its older population. Be better New York is a better place than New York. Most media only reports what they believe.

My Video of the Week This week’s report will discuss which countries and states handled COVID well.

There are not many differences between the states that have opened up and those that did not. The two states in the continental U.S. with the fewest deaths: Vermont and Utah — a red state and a blue state.

Also, the leftist media did a terrible job covering the rest of world.

The virus was allowed to spread by Swedish health officials to achieve herd immunity and allow younger people to live normal life. “experts” They were shocked.

Time: “A Disaster!” NBC: “Sweden’s failed experiment.”

It is, however. wasn’t It was a failure. The initial rise in COVID-related deaths was alarming, but data from Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) shows that Sweden has made progress. Be better It is more than the majority of European countries.

The OECD ranks countries based on their comparative performance. “excess deaths,” There are more deaths than the pre-COVID mean. It’s easier to compare countries that have lower COVID.

India reported fewer COVID deaths than the United States, but the World Health Organization claims that it is much higher. India saw 5 million more deaths during the last three years.

Maxim Lott’s website is excellent Maximum TruthThis is the cover “COVID Fudge Factor” in detail.

Many ex-Soviet countries undercount. Belarus’ dictator bragged, “There are no viruses here!” Belarus was home to many more deaths than the rest.

Two sub-Saharan African countries did exceptionally well during COVID. This was surprising considering Africa’s low vaccination rates and poor medical care. Lott attributes this to Africa’s young population. COVID rarely harms young people.

What do the data tell us about countries such as Australia that have imposed harsh lockdowns? It is not clear that this brutality was a benefit. Australia’s rules saved lives because the island closed its borders for two years. That severely limited COVID’s spread.

However, once nearly every Australian had been vaccinated and when the government relaxed its lockdown, COVID incidences soared. They are now in China.

Australia’s population has been adjusted to reflect this fact. Continue reading More COVID cases are than in the United States.

The reason that fewer Australians died was partly due to the availability of the less-deadly Omicron variant when Australia lifted its lockdown was because it was more widely available.

Is Australia’s tight lockdown worth it Two weeks more was the average Australian’s life expectancy. It is not worth the risk. Two extra weeks of your life is not worth being locked up in your apartment, or having rubber bullets fired at you if you go out to protest.

China has recently lifted the most severe restrictions on protesting, even though it is illegal to do so.

Financially, lockdowns can also be a problem. New York has lost 400,000 jobs since the outbreak of the pandemic. Florida Gained 400,000.

Children became more obese in New York because schools were closed. Florida saw a decline in obesity.

Kids’ education suffered. America saw its lowest reading and math scores in decades last year. The Swedish primary schools have never been closed, so there was no learning loss.

Three years ago, I understood that frightened politicians wanted the following: Do something. Some restrictions on public health are necessary for highly contagious viruses.

But they should be humble. We all have different views on safety and freedom.

It’s better to be in control of your life.

Stossel posts a video every Tuesday on JohnStossel.com about the struggle between government and freedom. He is also the author of “Give Me a Break: How I Exposed Hucksters, Cheats, and Scam Artists and Became the Scourge of the Liberal Media.”

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