How Many Lives have we "Saved" and at "What Cost" and to Whom?
I will attempt to answer these critical questions using my home state of Ohio as an example because no Governor in America imposed more draconian "preventive" measures upon his citizens, as early, and with less statistical evidence, than Ohio Governor Mike DeWine and his consistently wrong Health Director Dr. Amy Acton. Unfortunately, Governor DeWine did NOT do these calculations BEFORE deciding on a course of action in Ohio and therefore is oblivious to the carnage he has wrought upon the people of Ohio.
As Tucker Calrson explained in his show which aired on April 8, 2020, not only were the "Experts" and the "Models" horribly wrong in the predictions they used to PANIC Government officials, from mayors to the President, the reactions by Government officials have also been horribly wrong and totally lacking in perspective. Carlson makes it clear that any government official who tries to tell you that the deaths and hospitalizations from the coronavirus are as low as they are turning out to be, is a "result" of the draconian measures that were taken, are just lying to you to avoid responsibility for their actions.
So let me now answer the first question we posed, "How many lives have we 'saved' by these actions?" Earlier this week I posted at story about how "experts" and Government officials are terrified by how Sweden is handling the Coronavirus Pandemic. Why, because they are pretty much handling it like all countries have previously handled other new flu viruses in the past. They are relying on their citizens to take personal responsibility to protect themselves and they are letting the virus move through the society to create a herd immunity. By doing so they are drawing a direct contrast between the tried and true practices of the past and the radical actions being taken today around the world to shut down the world economy and force hundreds of millions of people to stay in their homes for months at a time.
Ohio is a state with 11,600,000 people and Sweden is a nation with 10,100,000 people. They are similar in size and have a mix of urban and rural populations that are close enough to make a comparison in order to approximate how many lives Ohio may have "saved" by their actions:
As you can see in this chart, Sweden did take several steps like Ohio did to mitigate the effects of the virus, but they did NOT take the most draconian steps such as closing PreK12 schools, closing ALL "non-essential" businesses, they did not order citizens to stay at home and they did not impose travel restrictions - even from other counties. The result is that Sweden has 3,740 more cases of the Wuhan Virus and 465 more deaths from the virus than Ohio.
Therefore, it could reasonably be determined that a month-long effort by 11.6 million Ohioans may have prevented the death of 465 of their fellow citizens over the past month. Without yet knowing the number of other citizens who have died in Ohio due to suicide, drug abuse, and alcohol abuse due to the massive loss of jobs, loss of businesses, loss of retirement investments, and loss of companionship and social interaction caused by Governor DeWine's and Dr. Acton ill-advised actions.
OHIO HAS "SAVED" 465 LIVES!
Is it a good thing that Ohio has "saved" 465 lives? Certainly, no one wants to see anyone die unnecessarily. However, there is significant evidence that many, perhaps 80% of those lives that were saved, may die in the next year or two anyway because the Wuhan coronaviris is most dangerous to people with pre-existing conditions and who are quite elderly. Thus the huge propotion of deaths in nursing homes.
However, the question that is equally important, and that has apparently NOT been even calculated by any Governor or President or "expert", is what is the cost to the rest of society to "save" these lives? Again, I will use Ohio as an example.
The GDP of Ohio is $700 Billion per year as of the end of 2019. The GDP is the value in real dollars of the total income generated by Ohio Businesses in a given year. Governor DeWine's reckless decision to follow Dr. Acton's baseless projections and advice to shut down first, all restaurants and bars, and then, ALL "non-essential" businesses in Ohio had closed at least 50% of ALL Ohio Businesses.
That 50% of Ohio businesses could then represent $350 Billion in annual revenue, 50% of the State GDP, and if they have been shut down for 30 days, which they have, those Ohio businesses have ALREADY LOST $29 BILLION IN INCOME! The Government of Ohio has, based literally on a "Guesstimate" by its incredibly irresponsible Health Director, taken by force $29 Billion from these 400,000 small business owners!
That is not even to mention the fact that the Governor's actions have put at least 30% of the state's 5,800,000 workers out of work, costing those Ohio Citizens approximately an additional $6,525,000,000! $6.5 BILLION In just ONE MONTH! In lost wages!
That means that the TOTAL COST to "save" 495 lives from coronavirus in Ohio is over $35 BILLION DOLLARS for JUST THIS MONTH! It also means that Ohio Governor Mike DeWine has forced the citizens of Ohio to spend $71 MILLION DOLLARS PER PERSON on his misguided efforts to "Save Lives"! While "every life is precious," does anyone think every life is worth $71 Million of YOUR money? Or perhaps that's OK if it's someone else footing the bill, and you can just pretend to be virtuous without it costing you a dime?
If you think that is reasonable, then why don't we save all 120,000 people who die in Ohio each year - right? Yea, that would cost over $8.5 TRILLION per year when our entire state GDP is $700 Billion. Still make sense to spend $72 Million to save one life?
IT COST OHIO CITIZENS $71 MILLION TO SAVE EACH LIFE
Let me be clear, this cost of "Saving Lives" in Ohio has NOT been imposed equally on the population. While the majority of Ohio Citizens were forced to comply with the Governor's rules, ALL state, local and federal government employees are still getting full pay, ALL teachers and public education staff are getting full pay, all senior citizens and retirees who get social security and/or a pension have seen no loss of income. It cost those Ohioans NOTHING to "save" lives, which is perhaps why so many of them have no problem with the Governor's draconian actions against their fellow citizens! The ENTIRE COST of this madness has been put unfairly on Ohio's workers and private sector business owners!
Neither the Ohio Governor, nor other elected officials, nor the President has ever explained any of this, did they? I don't believe they have even done this math to understand what they have done and are doing by continuing this insane destruction of our economy and the world economy and peoples lives! They all just used the tyrannical force of OUR government to illegally and immorally pick winners and losers - and NO "stimulous" or bailout is going to make this right.
REMEMBER: 99% of all the people telling you that your job is "un-necessary" or that your business is "non-essential" will not lose their job or income!
We should all be ashamed of what our "leaders" have done and what we have "let them do" in Ohio and around this nation to our working class people and these business owners. I sincerely hope that there will be class action lawsuits by business owners to sue the state and local government for billions in damages and then perhaps some of the people who did this will lose their jobs.
Based on these calculations alone, not to mention the now dubious threats from the coronavirus, the President, all Governors and all Mayors must IMMEDIATELY remove these specious social restrictions and end the lockdowns and shut downs and allow business owners and the working class to get to work repairing the damage done to them and to our nation by the ignorant "elites" in our "ruling class".
