The federal government rushed through trillions of dollars in relief legislation. In March 2020 alone, Congress approved three aid packages totaling $2.43 trillion. By the following March, COVID relief spending was close to $4 trillion.
All of this spending was with borrowed money, and paying off this monstrous debt is a burden future generations will have to bear. But the harm caused by these interventions goes beyond the explosion in the national debt.
Shutting down schools had a tragic impact on education. Reading and math scores plunged as schools struggled with remote learning. Reading scores saw their biggest drop in 30 years. Minorities suffered the most. Masking children for years will likely have long-term effects on their social development as well.
Meanwhile, depression, anxiety, and suicide all increased. A CDC study found that one in four people between 18 and 24 contemplated suicide during the shutdown.
Even car crash deaths, which had been trending downward for decades, started climbing again in 2020, and have continued to increase, most likely because reckless driving became more common thanks to prolonged shutdowns and more empty roads.
And what did we get for all this? Look at those fatality numbers again. At the start of COVID, experts said doing nothing would result in 1.7 million deaths. We did plenty, but the death count is steadily approaching that number anyway.
Researchers at Johns Hopkins University did a meta-analysis of studies done on the effectiveness of COVID mitigation efforts. Their stunning conclusion:
“We find no evidence that lockdowns, school closures, border closures, and limiting gatherings have had a noticeable effect on COVID-19 mortality.”
But the researchers found that all these interventions “have contributed to reducing economic activity, raising unemployment, reducing schooling, causing political unrest, contributing to domestic violence and undermining liberal democracy.”
We will concede that the rapid development of COVID tests, three different vaccines, and improved treatment regimens saved lives, although just how many is unknowable.
But what if we’d done nothing beyond that, other than follow standard guidelines when a disease is spreading?
