I have no qualm with that - though they don't necessary think of all the issues and are measuring only one outcome. Economists sometimes focus on the box they can contain and aren't actually measuring all the externalities due to the challenge of it.
1. If we didn't lockdown - hospital system would have likely collapsed - more deaths illness in the system and secondary effects.
2. The rate of spread would have been faster and probably we would have seen variants get more traction.
3. Lockdowns bought us time to get vaccinations developed, manufactured and distributed and taking off some of the burden on our health care system for which we are only still paying the costs of (burn out for employees, delayed procedures etc).
These guys clearly have an agenda .. one of them works at the Cato Institute. The also released this under the brand of John Hopkins knowing full well it would get attention for its Health reputation but its John Hopkins economics. Slimy.
1. Should we measure the impact of lockdowns on other types of deaths or adverse effects? Suicide, drug overdose, alcohol, the effects on children social learning? There will be adverse tertiary effects of lockdowns that we won't be able to measure for a few years.
2. The rate spread could have been much faster, leading us to Omicron, a mild variant with little impact.
3. Lockdowns brought economic/financial hardship on many people. Stimulus efforts provided little for those whose livelihood was impacted by government decisions.
Your focus is on the healthcare system, but the economy is an extensively complex system that has been significantly impacted. Sure the report was released out of John Hopkins, but the authors knew it would reach a larger audience than released under the Cato Institute. These studies and findings are to enable discussion about future policy decisions.
Listen - we could go toe to toe all day and we wouldn't change each other opinions. It's a very complicated issue both health care system and economic system are incredibly complicated and not possible to define to one metric - which is the point I am trying to make through giving some examples.
These guys knew what they were doing and they knew it was a topic that is very inflammatory, they are releasing it DURING the pandemic. Their backgrounds reduces most value that they bring to the table. There is an ideological cloud over their findings. They are doing this for publicity - maybe a Joe Rogan interview in the near future to discuss.
I am not about to investigate all the sources to uncover the likely cherry picked findings or unrealistic comparisons
Please re-evaluate your statement that Omicron is a mild variant with little impact. Daily deaths in the U.S. caused by Covid are now higher than it has ever been at any time during the pandemic. For example, just yesterday there were 3,622 deaths in the U.S. due to Covid. Omicron is "mild" if you're fully vaccinated, which sadly only applies to 65% of the U.S. population.
