Lockdown madness continues

Vincent J. Curtis

7 Jan 21

RE: Quebec to impose first curfew amid huge growth in pandemic

RE: Ontario to delay school reopenings to Jan 25

As readers of thi blog are aware, I have been warning against lockdown measures for quite some time.  In August, I warned against mandating the wearing of ineffective masks, on the grounds that wearing them would create a false sense of security.  Mask mandates coincided with the start of the second wave.  On December 17, I warned against a pending Ontario shutdown on the grounds that the empirical evidence was that case rates went up after the imposing of stricter control measures.  And now we’re deeper into that cycle.

The UK imposed a strict lockdown more than a month ago, and what happened?  They bred a new, more contagious strain of the virus, and increasing case rates are leading to even stricter lockdowns.  We are seeing the same in British Columbia and Alberta, stricter lockdowns precede higher case rates.  I said it would happen in Ontario, and lo and behold not only did case rates jump almost immediately by more than 1000 per day, but the daily rate is now 600 per day above that, about double the daily rate prior to the announcement of the provincial shutdown.  Quebec’s strict lockdown prior to Christmas bred higher case numbers, and now they’re into curfews, as if the virus would respect time.

This is the empirical evidence.  You can theorize why the facts are what they are, but facts are facts.  Another blindingly obvious fact is that lockdowns have yet to defeat the virus, and given what we know about other highly contagious viruses, lockdowns can never stop the progress of a pandemic infection.  Another reason general lockdowns can’t work is that they actually force people to congregate more!  If you limit stores that are open and times they are open, the same number of people have to go to fewer places and have a shorter period of time in which to do their business.  Then, people are forced to live for long periods of time in their residences breathing the same air as a contagious person.

How long is it going to be before the people in power recognize the trend in the empirical evidence?  Or are they enjoying their power so much that they don’t want to notice it?

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