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Great Barrington Declaration: One Year Later ⋆ Brownstone Institute

4 points by mrfusion 5y ago

mrfusion 5y ago
The Declaration is built around the concept of focused protection – using resources to protect people in the society most at-risk from COVID while avoiding the large-scale social and economic consequences of “one-size-fits-all” lockdowns.
cratermoon 5y ago
One year later: 4.55 million dead, nearly three quarters of a million of them Americans. The United States population is equivalent to 4.25% of the total world population, but has 19% of world's deaths from COVID-19.[1] One in 500 Americans has died from the disease.[2] 1. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-covid-19-death-toll-hits-700000-2021-10-01/ https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-covid-19-death-toll-hits... 2. https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/interactive/2021/1-in-500-covid-deaths/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/interactive/2021/1-in-...
- version_five 5y ago
  Maybe if the US had followed what the article is saying and protected those most at risk, instead of pandering to populist sentiments, they could have fared better? Where I live, most of the people dying in 2020 were in nursing homes, while the authorities focused in giving tickets to people who were having picnics outside or taking their kids to the park
  - cratermoon 5y ago
    And now who is dying?
- angelzen 5y ago
  To be fair, that statistic is an indication that something does not add up. There are plenty of other countries with similar or less access to modern medicine (modern ICUs, mRNA vaccines, etc.) due to sheer poverty that fared better, at least on paper. * Perhaps the way US counts covid death numbers overinflates them compared to other countries. * Perhaps the way other countries count covid death numbers underestimate them, if only for lack of proper testing. * Perhaps modern medicine is too successful in US, keeping a larger share of close-to-death people alive than in other countries. * Perhaps US population is too old / obese compared to other countries. * Perhaps US work habits lean workaholic, and people are not quarantining when they get cold/flu symptoms. * Perhaps air travel is too common in US, spreading the virus far and wide. * Perhaps wide-spread air conditioning promotes airborne virus propagation.
  - cratermoon 5y ago
    A very simple explanation is that too many Americans were too selfish and insouciant and simply refused to wear masks, social distance, quarantine, submit to contact tracing, or really, do any of the things epidemiologists recommended to contain and mitigate the pandemic. This also covers your point "US work habits lean workaholic", which is more correctly put as "US companies don't offer paid sick leave and economic conditions for many in the US require them to go to work even when sick". Even a very poor country that did better about mitigation would fare better than the US under those circumstances.
    - angelzen 5y ago
      > US companies don't offer paid sick leave and economic conditions for many in the US require them to go to work even when sick Indeed, this is a long standing major issue that might have turned the pandemic into a tragedy. I fear we are failing to learn the right lessons from the pandemic by focusing on internecine fights instead.

4 points by mrfusion 5y ago

The Declaration is built around the concept of focused protection – using resources to protect people in the society most at-risk from COVID while avoiding the large-scale social and economic consequences of “one-size-fits-all” lockdowns.

cratermoon 5y ago

One year later: 4.55 million dead, nearly three quarters of a million of them Americans. The United States population is equivalent to 4.25% of the total world population, but has 19% of world's deaths from COVID-19.[1] One in 500 Americans has died from the disease.[2] 1. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-covid-19-death-toll-hits-700000-2021-10-01/ https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-covid-19-death-toll-hits... 2. https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/interactive/2021/1-in-500-covid-deaths/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/interactive/2021/1-in-...

version_five 5y ago
Maybe if the US had followed what the article is saying and protected those most at risk, instead of pandering to populist sentiments, they could have fared better? Where I live, most of the people dying in 2020 were in nursing homes, while the authorities focused in giving tickets to people who were having picnics outside or taking their kids to the park
- cratermoon 5y ago
  And now who is dying?
angelzen 5y ago
To be fair, that statistic is an indication that something does not add up. There are plenty of other countries with similar or less access to modern medicine (modern ICUs, mRNA vaccines, etc.) due to sheer poverty that fared better, at least on paper. * Perhaps the way US counts covid death numbers overinflates them compared to other countries. * Perhaps the way other countries count covid death numbers underestimate them, if only for lack of proper testing. * Perhaps modern medicine is too successful in US, keeping a larger share of close-to-death people alive than in other countries. * Perhaps US population is too old / obese compared to other countries. * Perhaps US work habits lean workaholic, and people are not quarantining when they get cold/flu symptoms. * Perhaps air travel is too common in US, spreading the virus far and wide. * Perhaps wide-spread air conditioning promotes airborne virus propagation.
- cratermoon 5y ago
  A very simple explanation is that too many Americans were too selfish and insouciant and simply refused to wear masks, social distance, quarantine, submit to contact tracing, or really, do any of the things epidemiologists recommended to contain and mitigate the pandemic. This also covers your point "US work habits lean workaholic", which is more correctly put as "US companies don't offer paid sick leave and economic conditions for many in the US require them to go to work even when sick". Even a very poor country that did better about mitigation would fare better than the US under those circumstances.
  - angelzen 5y ago
    > US companies don't offer paid sick leave and economic conditions for many in the US require them to go to work even when sick Indeed, this is a long standing major issue that might have turned the pandemic into a tragedy. I fear we are failing to learn the right lessons from the pandemic by focusing on internecine fights instead.