Tag: Lockdown

The fallacy of 'politician's logic' was popularised by the much-loved British sitcom Yes, Prime Minister. And it seems to explain lockdown: 'Something must be done; lockdown is something; therefore we must do it.'

Restrictions are gone in the private sector, but in the public sector, where more customers just brings in more work rather than more money, there is conspicuously little rush to return to normal.

We're publishing another "Postcard From Manilla" on the Daily Sceptic. The Philippines boasts the longest continuous lockdown in the world and there are no signs it's about to be lifted. Sounds even worse than Australia.

Today, Australia posted its largest daily total for the number of new infections since the pandemic began. Yet parts of Sydney have been under lockdown for almost two full months. Is it time for focused protection?

There is ample evidence that school closures have hurt student achievement. And the World Bank estimates that “a school shutdown of 5 months could generate learning losses that have a present value of $10 trillion”.

Belarus has finally published its overall mortality figures up to March 2021, giving us for the first time a plausibly reliable indicator of the true impact of the pandemic in the anti-lockdown country.

A question for Chris Whitty: Given that the WHO, the Department of Health and you – as recently as March 2020 – rejected the suppression strategy, why did you describe focused protection as “wrong scientifically”?

Was lockdown illegal? While the High Court in London rejected Dolan’s case against the Government, lockdown opponents have won important victories in a number of countries, including France, Germany and Spain.

A Government minister has confirmed Chris Whitty's warning that lockdown could be reintroduced in weeks, saying Boris Johnson will "of course" consider more restrictions if the Covid situation becomes "unacceptable".

The looting in South Africa was triggered by last week's arrest of Jacob Zuma. But it's worth considering whether lockdown is a factor too. South Africa's GDP fell 7% last year, and unemployment stands at 32.6%