She was flabbergasted

Vincent J. Curtis

16 June 21

RE: COVID infections continue to fall in Hamilton.  Hamilton Spectator 16 June 21,

There, next to the story, is a picture of Dr. Elizabeth Richardson looking her most perplexed.  Baffled.  Confused.  Thunderstruck.  Uncomprehending!  “Movement in the city” has increased sharply to near pre-pandemic levels – residents are dropping their guards! – and yet COVID infections continue to fall in Hamilton!!

If you had bet your reputation on control of movement to control the pandemic, and then found that pandemic cases continued drop even after movement approached pre-pandemic levels, you’d be looking concerned too.  Here it is, in black and white, that restricting movement and controlling the spread of the pandemic had nothing to do with each other!  That would mean the lockdown measures were completely – completely! – ineffective.  In fact, keeping people bottled up in their apartments might have enhanced the spread!  Oops!

Stanford University Medical Center, back in January, released a paper on the effectiveness of lockdown measures around the world, and found them to be ineffective.  All of them.  In April, the M.I.T. modelling of the spread came out showing that spreading occurred almost exclusively indoors, when the virus was allowed to build up in room and people were kept in the room long enough to overcome their susceptibility.  Movement was irrelevant.  Exposure time to contaminated air was the crucial factor.  (When has the Spec heard that before? I want to say August, 2020.)

The cases curve is the standard shape of the progress of a pandemic.  Restricting movement controlled nothing!

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