"irst, and most important, locking down most of the population is at best a very temporary strategy at best. Even setting aside the economic consequences of quarantining a majority of Americans and shutting down their workplaces, the lockdown strategy does little to combat the spreading of the virus, since it gives people no chance to build up immunities, which are key to stopping it. Writes Jeff Deist:

From day one the focus should have been on boosting immunity through exercise, fresh air, sunlight, proper dietary supplementation, and the promotion of general well-being. Instead our politicians, bureaucrats, and media insisted on business lockdowns, school closures, distancing, isolation, masks, and the mirage of a fast, effective vaccine.

The problem is that the virus is not going to disappear, so even if one temporarily prevents its spread by shuttering people in their homes, sooner or later people will have to mingle, and when they do, their bodies will not be conditioned to fight it, so the infection rate certainly will increase. In fact, that is what we have seen so far, as we have lockdowns followed by relaxation of the rules, followed by a surge of new infections. That surge then leads to panic in the media and among the political classes, with the new “solution” being even more lockdowns.

One would think that this seemingly endless cycle of lockdown-relaxation-lockdown would lead the authorities to rethink their strategies, but that is not the case, and this willful blindness is not limited to American politicians. We see governments in Denmark, Belgium, New Zealand, and elsewhere reverting to lockdowns after an increase in new infections.

Meanwhile, the Swedish infection rate clearly is falling, and falling relative to the infection rates of countries that have followed strict lockdown procedures, even if mainstream journalists do not wish to make the comparisons. To a casual observer, it made sense to think that over the past eight months, if the mainstream “experts” were correct, Sweden would be a basket case, as Swedes have carried on with their lives—usually not wearing face coverings—in a way that would seem to be an open invitation to mass spreading of covid-19. Moreover, if the media is to be believed, Swedes should be dying in record numbers. We see none of that happening, yet the Sweden-must-lock-down-or-else narrative continues to dominate the news (and certainly Google’s search engine).

Then there is the economic side. For the most part progressives have framed the economic damage as a necessary “sacrifice” in order to bring the covid-19 pandemic under control. Last May, Paul Krugman wrote that unless the government were to aggressively enforce social distancing policies (read that, massive lockdowns), then there would be even more massive unemployment, his thinking being that unless the authorities kept people at home and prevented interactions, people would get sick and miss work, throwing the economy into a depression. So, putting Krugman logic to the test, we must have massive unemployment and business bankruptcies in order to avoid massive unemployment and business bankruptcies.

Anything less than total lockdowns, he argued, would lead to disaster:

retreat from responsibility won’t just kill thousands. It might also turn the Covid slump into a depression.

Here’s how it would work: Over the next few weeks, many red states abandon social-distancing policies, while many individuals, taking their cues from Trump and Fox News, begin behaving irresponsibly. This leads, briefly, to some rise in employment.

But fairly soon it becomes clear that Covid-19 is spiraling out of control. People retreat back into their homes, whatever Trump and Republican governors may say.

So we’re back where we started in economic terms, and in worse shape than ever in epidemiological terms. As a result, the period of double-digit unemployment, which might have lasted only a few months, goes on and on.

Krugman’s scenario, however, never came about. As the diagram in this linked page shows, even when Krugman wrote his column US recovery rates from covid-19 were soaring while death rates were plummeting, and they have continued to fall even as many states and municipalities have relaxed earlier restrictions, the counterfactual of Krugman’s doomsday prediction.

If we should have learned anything in the past eight months, it should be that that massive lockdowns impose huge costs and dubious benefits. The progressive notion that we can just close businesses, churches, sports venues, and other offices—the unemployed being compensated with printed money—until someone develops the magic vaccination and not suffer huge consequences is as fanciful as the belief that if California bans gasoline and diesel-fueled vehicles, its wildfires will disappear. The financial and emotional stresses that come from lockdowns are harmful to both physical and mental health and the evidence is all around us.

Lockdowns Serve the Progressive Political Class
We have to understand that the political classes and their media have a vested interest in the lockdown status quo, and that includes regular provision of what only can be called disinformation. The mainstream media this past summer dutifully reported a highly questionable (I use that term charitably) report that the Sturgis Bike Rally in South Dakota led to more than a quarter million covid infections and more than $12 billion of medical costs. It should have been obvious on its face that the report was deeply flawed, yet in their desire to fuel the covid-is-killing-us narrative, journalists took this too-good-to-be-true story and ran with it.

As for politicians, the covid crisis has been a godsend for those governmental executives and bureaucrats who see constitutional restrictions that limit their authority as mere obstacles to be easily swept away. Governors such as Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, Andrew Cuomo of New York, Gavin Newsom of California, and Tom Wolfe of Pennsylvania have received adoring coverage in the media for seizing and employing dictatorial powers, Whitmer even unilaterally deciding that the sale of garden seeds in stores was illegal. Cuomo’s decision to force the housing of covid-19 patients in nursing homes led to the deaths of thousands of people, yet his national media coverage is uniformly positive.

Contrast the affirmative news coverage of Cuomo with the barrage of media attacks on Governor Kristi Noem of South Dakota. Noem has emphasized personal responsibility and did not attempt mass closures of schools and businesses in the state, and the mainstream media erupted with fury. That South Dakota has come through this pandemic relatively well does not matter with the media, as the only acceptable action (to mainstream and elite journalists) in response to covid is for governors to single-handedly seize power and lock down their citizens.

Keep in mind that the real losses that Americans suffered because of the heavy-handed governmental response to the covid outbreak are permanent. As Robert Higgs so eloquently pointed out in Crisis and Leviathan, governments often create crises or, at the very least, they manipulate events such as natural disasters and use them as opportunities to expand governmental powers. Even after the crises end, governments keep some of their newly self-granted powers—and most people raise little or no concern even when government has curtailed more of their freedoms."