Here is the letter Wall Street Journal:
Editor:
In the three years since most of humanity was horrified by unprecedented lockdowns, we’ve learned a lot about measures to combat Covid. But Tom Frieden seems to have missed most of the lesson (“What worked against covid: masks, closures and vaccines” (May 17).
It links to three supporting papers, claiming that locks have worked. But the most recent of these appeared in July 2021. Since then, locks’ Failure It was written by Joel Zinberg, Brian Blaise, Eric Sonn and Casey Mulligan. February 2023 study. These authors found that “more severe government interventions did not significantly improve health outcomes (age-adjusted and pre-existing condition-adjusted covid mortality and all-cause excess mortality) as measured by the Oxford index.” It states that it has imposed minimal restrictive measures.
Indeed, while Dr. Frieden rightly states that the best measure of the impact of Covid is excess mortality, he fails to mention how high the excess mortality rate in Sweden is compared to other countries. Such a comparison (which can easily be made over here) shows results that are difficult to advance with Dr. Frieden’s confidence that the locks worked.
A related error is the omission of Dr. Frieden. A great description of BarringtonFocus Protection Proposal – A policy that carefully targets resources and focus to protect those most vulnerable to Covid, if they are in lockdown as opposed to a blind burst of gunfire. Dr. Frieden simply He guesses. Lockdowns and masks are the only acceptable way to reduce transmission and disease. His actions here are legal, just as the only acceptable way to reduce drunk driving deaths is to ban alcohol.
best regard
Donald J. Boudreaux
Professor of Economics
And
Martha and Nelson Getchell Chair for the Study of Free Market Capitalism at the Mercatus Center
George Mason University
Fairfax, VA 22030
……..
Additional errors – and many of them – mar this Frieden article. But my letter is too long.
