Australia Created a Police State to Stop COVID-19. Data Show It’s Not Working<\/strong><\/h1>\nThe images from Australia’s lockdown are terrifying, and many people are awakening to the moral horror that is engulfing the Land Down Under.<\/em><\/h3>\nJon Miltimore
\nFEE Sories<\/p>\n
On Monday New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern\u00a0announced the government\u00a0<\/a>would be extending its lockdown following an outbreak of the Delta variant.<\/p>\n“We don’t yet believe that we have reached the peak of this outbreak, or necessarily the edge of it,” Ardern said at a news conference in the capital Wellington.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, in nearby Australia, residents are entering the ninth week of a lockdown that had initially been scheduled for two weeks. In many of the hardest-hit parts of the city, NBC reports, military personnel roam the streets and authorities issue fines of up to $3,700 to individuals breaking lockdown orders.<\/p>\n
The policy has resulted in violent clashes between police and lockdown protesters, but public health officials have defended the policy, which is expected to last at least through September.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat this is about is buying us time,\u201d\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0Kerry Chant, the chief health officer in New South Wales state.<\/p>\nLockdown Deja Vu<\/h2>\n
The decision by New Zealand and Australia to lockdown\u2014and stay in lockdown as the virus spreads\u2014fits a familiar pattern.<\/p>\n
In 2020, numerous governments around the world went into lockdown to attempt to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. In the United States, public health officials created a \u201c15 days to slow the spread<\/a>\u201d campaign\u2014which quickly devolved, in many places, into indefinite closures of all economic sectors deemed \u201cnon-essential.\u201d<\/p>\nThe results of lockdowns were catastrophic\u2014millions of job losses, millions of businesses destroyed, surging drug overdoses, increased youth suicide and depression, and a massive decrease in cancer screenings, among them. Globally, as many as 150 million people are expected to slip into extreme poverty,\u00a0according to<\/a>\u00a0the World Bank.<\/p>\nDr. Jay Bhattacharya, a professor at Stanford University Medical School, recently called lockdowns the “biggest public health mistake we’ve ever made.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe harm to people is catastrophic,\u201d said Bhattacharya.<\/p>\n
The harms would be bad enough, but an abundance of evidence also suggests the lockdowns were ineffective at containing the virus.\u00a0Nearly three dozen academic studies<\/a>\u00a0have been published suggesting that lockdowns do little to slow the spread of the virus.<\/p>\nFollowing the outbreak last year, modelers warned that Sweden would incur \u201cat least 96,000 deaths \u2026 by 1 July without mitigation.\u201d To date, fewer than 15,000 Swedes have died with coronavirus, and Sweden saw\u00a0a lower death spike than most of Europe<\/a>. Moreover, neighbors such as Norway and Finland,\u00a0who had policies similar to Sweden<\/a>, had among the lowest COVID mortality rates in Europe.<\/p>\n\u201c[Lockdowns] have not served to control the epidemic in the places where they have been most vigorously imposed,\u201d Bhattacharya told\u00a0Newsweek<\/em>\u00a0earlier this year<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Jon Miltimore
\nFEE Sories<\/p>\n
On Monday New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern\u00a0announced the government\u00a0<\/a>would be extending its lockdown following an outbreak of the Delta variant.<\/p>\n “We don’t yet believe that we have reached the peak of this outbreak, or necessarily the edge of it,” Ardern said at a news conference in the capital Wellington.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, in nearby Australia, residents are entering the ninth week of a lockdown that had initially been scheduled for two weeks. In many of the hardest-hit parts of the city, NBC reports, military personnel roam the streets and authorities issue fines of up to $3,700 to individuals breaking lockdown orders.<\/p>\n The policy has resulted in violent clashes between police and lockdown protesters, but public health officials have defended the policy, which is expected to last at least through September.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat this is about is buying us time,\u201d\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0Kerry Chant, the chief health officer in New South Wales state.<\/p>\n The decision by New Zealand and Australia to lockdown\u2014and stay in lockdown as the virus spreads\u2014fits a familiar pattern.<\/p>\n In 2020, numerous governments around the world went into lockdown to attempt to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. In the United States, public health officials created a \u201c15 days to slow the spread<\/a>\u201d campaign\u2014which quickly devolved, in many places, into indefinite closures of all economic sectors deemed \u201cnon-essential.\u201d<\/p>\n The results of lockdowns were catastrophic\u2014millions of job losses, millions of businesses destroyed, surging drug overdoses, increased youth suicide and depression, and a massive decrease in cancer screenings, among them. Globally, as many as 150 million people are expected to slip into extreme poverty,\u00a0according to<\/a>\u00a0the World Bank.<\/p>\n Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a professor at Stanford University Medical School, recently called lockdowns the “biggest public health mistake we’ve ever made.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe harm to people is catastrophic,\u201d said Bhattacharya.<\/p>\n The harms would be bad enough, but an abundance of evidence also suggests the lockdowns were ineffective at containing the virus.\u00a0Nearly three dozen academic studies<\/a>\u00a0have been published suggesting that lockdowns do little to slow the spread of the virus.<\/p>\n Following the outbreak last year, modelers warned that Sweden would incur \u201cat least 96,000 deaths \u2026 by 1 July without mitigation.\u201d To date, fewer than 15,000 Swedes have died with coronavirus, and Sweden saw\u00a0a lower death spike than most of Europe<\/a>. Moreover, neighbors such as Norway and Finland,\u00a0who had policies similar to Sweden<\/a>, had among the lowest COVID mortality rates in Europe.<\/p>\n \u201c[Lockdowns] have not served to control the epidemic in the places where they have been most vigorously imposed,\u201d Bhattacharya told\u00a0Newsweek<\/em>\u00a0earlier this year<\/a>.<\/p>\nLockdown Deja Vu<\/h2>\n