INDEX

Wednesday May 5, 2021

The virus: Cost benefit analysis of the lockdown

I certainly believe lockdowns reduce disease transmission. It's worth looking at seasonal flu cases. It virtually disappeared as a cause of death in the UK last winter thanks (I think) to the lockdown, though some in the NHS say it was down to improved treatment.. My view of lockdowns is that you need to do a cost benefit analysis. On the one hand the lockdowns caused poverty, homelessness, long term mental health problems, suicides (once the blitz spirit is over), reduction in the detection of life threatening illnesses like cancer, family break downs, longer queues for soup kitchens and food parcel distribution, hungry children, interruption of education with catastrophic long term impacts on the careers and prospects of those who do not have a middle class homelife or middle class networks, confused elderly people going to their grave cut off from their families, evictions, unemployment, business closures (like pubs and local shops), the destruction of the high street, isolation and loneliness, the severing of long term community ties and many other problems some of which will probably not become apparent until years after the lockdowns. On the other hand the lockdowns preserved the lives of mostly extremely elderly people by perhaps a few years or maybe only a few months. There needs to be a cost benefit analysis to decide which option kills least. People die either way. My belief is that we should have offered enormous financial support (plus hotel accommodation where necessary) to the elderly and vulnerable, especially those living in extended families, rather than lockdown.

Posted by Jonathan Brind.

INDEX

Wednesday May 5, 2021