The worldwide lockdown is not only a mistake but also, possibly, the worst mistake the world has ever made.
By Dennis Prager, BLUE WATER HEALTHY LIVING
The idea that the worldwide lockdown of virtually every country other than Sweden may have been an enormous mistake strikes many — including world leaders; most scientists, especially health officials, doctors and epidemiologists; those who work in major news media; opinion writers in those media; and the hundreds of millions, if not billions, of people who put their faith in these people — as so preposterous as to be immoral. Timothy Egan of The New York Times described Republicans who wish to enable their states to open up as “the party of death.”
That’s the way it is today on planet Earth, where deceit, cowardice and immaturity now dominate almost all societies because the elites are deceitful, cowardly and immature.
But for those open to reading thoughts they may differ with, here is the case for why the worldwide lockdown is not only a mistake but also, possibly, the worst mistake the world has ever made. And for those intellectually challenged by the English language and/or logic, “mistake” and “evil” are not synonyms. The lockdown is a mistake; the Holocaust, slavery, communism, fascism, etc., were evils. Massive mistakes are made by arrogant fools; massive evils are committed by evil people.
The forcible prevention of Americans from doing anything except what politicians deem “essential” has led to the worst economy in American history since the Great Depression of the 1930s. It is panic and hysteria, not the coronavirus, that created this catastrophe. And the consequences in much of the world will be more horrible than in America.
The United Nations World Food Programme, or the WFP, states that by the end of the year, more than 260 million people will face starvation — double last year’s figures. According to WFP director David Beasley on April 21: “We could be looking at famine in about three dozen countries. … There is also a real danger that more people could potentially die from the economic impact of COVID-19 than from the virus itself” (italics added).
That would be enough to characterize the worldwide lockdown as a deathly error. But there is much more. If global GDP declines by 5%, another 147 million people could be plunged into extreme poverty, according to the International Food Policy Research Institute.
Foreign Policy magazine reports that, according to the International Monetary Fund, the global economy will shrink by 3% in 2020, marking the biggest downturn since the Great Depression, and the U.S., the eurozone and Japan will contract by 5.9%, 7.5% and 5.2%, respectively. Meanwhile, across South Asia, as of a month ago, tens of millions were already “struggling to put food on the table.” Again, all because of the lockdowns, not the virus.
In one particularly incomprehensible act, the government of India, a poor country of 1.3 billion people, locked down its people. As Quartz India reported on April 22, “Coronavirus has killed only around 700 Indians … a small number still compared to the 450,000 TB and 10,000-odd malaria deaths recorded every year.”
One of the thousands of unpaid garment workers protesting the lockdown in Bangladesh understands the situation better than almost any health official in the world: “We are starving. If we don’t have food in our stomach, what’s the use of observing this lockdown?” But concern for that Bangladeshi worker among the world’s elites seems nonexistent.
The lockdown is “possibly even more catastrophic (than the virus) in its outcome: the collapse of global food-supply systems and widespread human starvation” (italics added). That was published in the left-wing The Nation, which, nevertheless, enthusiastically supports lockdowns. But the American left cares as much about the millions of non-Americans reduced to hunger and starvation because of the lockdown as it does about the people of upstate New York who have no incomes, despite the minuscule number of coronavirus deaths there. Or about the citizens of Oregon, whose governor has just announced the state will remain locked down until July 6. As of this writing, a total of 109 people have died of the coronavirus in Oregon.
An example of how disinterested the left is in worldwide suffering is made abundantly clear in a front-page “prayer” by a left-wing Christian in the current issue of The Nation: “May we who are merely inconvenienced remember those whose lives are at stake.”
“Merely inconvenienced” is how the Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, a Protestant minister and president of the North Carolina NAACP, describes the tens of millions of Americans rendered destitute, not to mention the hundreds of millions around the world rendered not only penniless but hungry. The truth is, like most of the elites, it is Barber who is “merely inconvenienced.” Indeed, the American battle today is between the merely inconvenienced and the rest of America.
Michael Levitt, professor of structural biology at Stanford Medical School and winner of the 2013 Nobel Prize in chemistry, recently stated, “There is no doubt in my mind that when we come to look back on this, the damage done by lockdown will exceed any saving of lives by a huge factor.”
To the left, anyone who questions the lockdown is driven by preference for money over lives. Typical of the left’s moral shallowness is this headline on Salon this week:
“It’s Time To Reject the Gods of Commerce: America Is a Society, Not an ‘Economy,’” with the subhead reading, “America Is About People, Not Profit Margins.”
And, of course, to smug editors and writers of The Atlantic, in article after repetitive article, the fault lies not with the lockdown but with President Donald Trump. The most popular article in The Atlantic this week is titled “The Rest of the World Is Laughing at Trump.” The elites can afford to laugh at whatever they want. Meanwhile, the less fortunate — that is, most people — are crying.
Dennis Prager is a nationally syndicated radio talk-show host and columnist. His latest book, published by Regnery in May 2019, is “The Rational Bible,” a commentary on the book of Genesis. His film, “No Safe Spaces,” came to theaters fall 2019. He is the founder of Prager University and may be contacted at dennisprager.com.
@ nhow:
NHow, I assure you this is not a hoax, and nobody knows that better than the Chinese Communist leadership. That’s why they were careful to lock down their own people, while letting planeloads of virus-carriers spread the pandemic into the Western World.
I’d say it’s a hoax, not a ‘mistake’. The latest, and most successful, attempt yet to create a global, socialist tyranny. Of course, the punchline will be a gene altering vaccine (that will literally change your DNA) and implanted liquid microchips linked to 5G. Cashless society, etc. A handful of people in a room will literally be able to control the entire world.
Ted, my post has been blocked in a new and different way.
Israel has been successful in greatly limiting the amount of very sick and dead. The country and its leaders came together. Yes the economy has been hurt in doing this but many lives have been saved.
Israelis as usual argued while doing this. They had lots of volunteers feeding the old who needed help. 5000 Medical Students volunteered to basic nursing work in hospitals. Regular staff worked at least 4 twelve hour shifts per week.
People did this with spirit at times singing from the four questions from their balconies during Pesach since they were in lock-down. They were entertained by professional singers from trucks on the streets while on their balconies during Independence Day. Younger people did try and practice social distancing from their grandparents. This helped!
Why is it so unthinkable to Prager that this whole worldwide lockdown is NOT a mistake and that it has nothing to do with left/right, or Democrats/Republicans, or some evil people’s desire to get rid of Trump?
Could it be that the “elites” finally decided to get rid of a few “useless eaters” and let “the fittest” survive?
After all, jobs will keep disappearing due to automation and robotization (the 4th industrial revolution) even if all the manufacturing comes back to the US and Europe – what would be the point of spending billions if not trillions of $$ taking care of the old, sick, poor, disabled, or those starving in the 3rd world countries?
There is a popular view among many economists and investors that great depressions clear out the trash, so to speak, so that the economy can start clean and fresh all over again after the “unfit” jump off the tall buildings or disappear in other ways.
There is at least one book written about the ineffectiveness and uselessness of small businesses and how effective and efficient large corporations are.
The last Great Depression destroyed millions of small farmers. Could it be that the “elites” decided it’s time to “take care” of the small business enterprises and their “ineffective” owners, among other things?
I cannot imagine that people who are in charge of just about every country in the world are capable of making THIS kind of MISTAKE!
@ Michael S:
While we’re here, Bear, here’s a link to articles that would explain the sudden explosion of COVIS-19 cases in Europe:
“A swab of the French patient, 43-year-old Amirouche Hammar from Bobigny, was taken in December but was not tested until recently and was found positive for the coronavirus infection.
“Hammar claimed he had not left France before his illness, but it was noted that his wife worked near the Charles De Gaulle airport and may have come into contact with Chinese travellers.
“According to Tegnell, the early cases in Sweden were not responsible for the outbreak that has led to the deaths of around 2,800 people so far in the country, with the Swedish Public Health Authority believing the large-scale infections did not start until either February or March.
“France and Sweden are not the only countries to report cases well before the main outbreak of coronavirus took hold across Europe. In Italy, doctor Pietro Poidomani claimed to have seen cases resembling coronavirus symptoms as early as January 7th.
“Poidomani stated that he attempted to check medical x-ray records with the local government of Bergamo but was denied. Bergamo went on to be one of the worst affected areas in Italy.
“In the Lombardy region, where Bergamo is located, a recent analysis of cases also shows the virus had been in Italy before the first official case on February 21st, stating as many as 1,200 cases existed prior to the discovery of “patient one”.”
— https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/05/06/swedens-coronavirus-response-head-virus-arrived-november/
I have been closely following the numbers on COVID. The latest hot spot is Brazil, whose president was of the opinion that Brazilians had unique immune systems, sufficient to take care of the virus. Until zeroing in on Brazil, I was beginning to be of the opinion that the virus couldn’t thrive in tropical heat. I hadn’t considered the power of sheer stupidity.
Paging Bear Klein.
Hi, Bear. I found a good video about the effects of COVID-19, explaining the wide-ranging effects on the body. I think you are the only one here who would be interested; Ted and the others seem to have made up their minds that the virus, essentially, is a glorified common cold germ of no consequence — which is why I had to page you on this propagandistic article. Here’s the video:
https://youtu.be/KzKvIYwqQkE