The Realization is Developing That the Lockdowns Were Induced By Irrational Panic

Back in June, in a podcast episode, I called out the lockdowns as driven by dread risk fear followed by herd risk fear.

These concepts are now gaining traction. Although the terms dread risk fear and herd risk fear are not being used, the concepts are. 

In a recent post, Herd Immunity is Not About Killing Grandmothers, I quoted Stanford's Dr. Jay Bhattacharya a co-author of the Great Barrington Declaration:

 Lockdown policies...reflect, Dr. Bhattacharya says, a “sort of monomania.” The world “panicked in March, and the focus came to just be on Covid control and nothing else.” People saw pictures from Wuhan, China, and Bergamo, Italy, and concluded that they had to do “something very, very drastic in order to address this drastic thing that’s happening.” There was “an action bias that led to the adoption of lockdowns as a form of contagion itself.”

On the heels of the Bhattacharya comment. Dr. Ari R Joffe, MD, who teaches in the Department of Pediatrics, Division of Critical Care Medicine, University of Alberta and Stollery Children’s Hospital, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and is a member of The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, writes in a new paper:

 The public health goal of lockdowns was to save the population from COVID-19 cases and deaths, and to prevent overwhelming health care systems with COVID-19 patients. In this narrative review I explain why I changed my mind about supporting lockdowns. First, I explain how the initial modeling predictions induced fear and crowd-effects [i.e., groupthink].

This is also hinting about dread risk and herd risk fear though Bhattacharya is more spot-on citing the initial pictures coming on out of  Wuhan, China, and Bergamo, Italy, than the later initial modeling predictions. If those pictures weren't beamed to the masses from the two cities, the off-the-wall modeling forecast would have been greeted with a yawn.

But the element is developing that panic, not based on science, was behind the lockdowns. My initial thinking was that the recognition of this fact might take years, so it is good to see that recognition of the role of fear in the lockdowns is already starting to emerge.

Also noteworthy is one of the other reasons Joffe lists for turning against lockdowns:

I describe how reality started sinking in, with information on significant collateral damage due to the response to the pandemic, and information placing the number of deaths in context and perspective...I present a cost-benefit analysis of the response to COVID-19 that finds lockdowns are far more harmful to public health than COVID-19 can be. 

Back in April, I warned of some of the collateral damage:

It's Time...

...to get mad as hell. Aside from the one-size-fits-all horrific risk-reward ratios imposed on all of us by government power freaks through lockdowns and other tyrannical measures, there are zero scientific studies that indicate total lockdowns make any sense.

The lockdowns put the healthy potential carriers of COVID-19 in close quarters with many elderly who may be especially vulnerable to harsh consequences from infection.

 It deprives most with outdoor sunlight, sunlight which provides healthy means by which to battle COVID-19 and other diseases.

 The lockdowns have resulted in more suicides, domestic abuse, child abuse and child rape.

It is time to do your part in your way to help end the madness.

The collateral damage was not difficult to see coming. Joffe lists additional types of damage.

Sanity is returning at the edges by the thinking crowd. This is a good sign.

But the politicians will continue to push different versions of lockdowns as long as polls show that the masses support "action to fight COVID-19." They along with the evil Dr. Fauci and the rest of the CDC are fueling the fear.

And thus a good chunk of the masses remains in a state of irrational fear about COVID-19. This is the big problem. Bhattacharya and Joffe chipping away at this irrational fear is very important work right now.

-RW