Conversations with Jay Bhattacharya: Jonas Herby (economist)

Did lockdowns work to save lives? Professor Jay Bhattacharya and economist Jonas Herby discuss the evidence. In 2022, Herby, Steve Hanke, and Lars Jonung published a comprehensive review of the scientific literature on the topic. Their shocking conclusion was that the real-world evidence did not support the idea that the early lockdowns of March 2020 had saved many lives. While the early computer models predicted that lockdowns were necessary to prevent millions of deaths, in fact, there were only small differences in outcomes between locations that adopted stringent, formal restrictions and places (like Sweden) that did not. Herby and Bhattacharya discuss the limitations of early models and the need for real data in evaluating public health interventions. Finally, Herby reveals the shocking treatment of his scientific work on lockdowns by scientific pre-print outlets, which censored his paper but published substandard criticisms of it, creating an illusion of scientific consensus in favor of lockdowns.

Resource: Herby et al., A Systematic Literature Review and Meta-Analysis of the Effects of Lockdowns on COVID-19 Mortality II

Featuring music by Tess Parks.

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