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SHUTTERSTOCK.COM<\/p><\/div>\n
By Calvin Freiburger
\nLifeSite News<\/p>\n
July 31, 2020 (LifeSiteNews<\/a>) \u2013 Draconian lockdowns of the type adopted in many American states are less effective at combating COVID-19 than strategies more narrowly targeted at those most in danger, according to a study of 10 different nations released this week by the conservative Heritage Foundation.<\/p>\n The comparative analysis<\/a> looks at the responses to the coronavirus outbreak employed by the United States, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Italy, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, and Iran.<\/p>\n It first found that while the U.S. leads the free world in confirmed cases per capita (China\u2019s numbers are believed to be higher, but there are serious doubts<\/a> as to the credibility of the authoritarian regime\u2019s official data), and has suffered 200 time the daily deaths of North Korea since June 1 despite having one-fourteenth the population density.<\/p>\n However, it also cautioned that the comparison was potentially misleading, as the U.S. consists of 50 different states which have adopted a range of different responses, and that U.S. cases and deaths are both \u201chighly concentrated in a few, mostly heavily populated, areas.\u201d For example, New York was America\u2019s most hardest-hit state<\/a>, thanks in part to Democrat Gov. Andrew Cuomo forcing nursing homes to take in COVID-19 patients, despite elderly residents\u2019 heightened vulnerability to the virus.<\/p>\n Internationally, the study found: \u201cSome countries that eschewed lockdown policies and relied on more targeted approaches, such as South Korea and Iceland, have experienced outcomes even better than those that have relied on the more severe lockdown approach,\u201d while the \u201cfact that Australia and New Zealand, two similar countries, approached the COVID-19 pandemic so differently, yet had similar outcomes, suggests that alternatives to the most restrictive forms of lockdowns have merit, even in the short run.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSpecifically, Australia had 13,595 COVID-19 cases (0.0534% of its population) and 139 deaths (0.000546% of its population), while New Zealand had 1,556 cases (0.0323% of its population) and 22 deaths (0.000457% of its population),\u201d authors Andy Vanderplas and Kevin Dayaratna write<\/a>. \u201cHowever, New Zealand\u2019s unemployment level is forecast to increase to 9.2% by December, while Australia\u2019s is expected to increase to 7.6% over this same time period.\u201d<\/p>\n