The Corona Virus Impact
Health Threat, Economic and Foreign Affairs
Tom Donelson, Americas Majority Foundation, Project Director and Research Associate
The present economic turndown is the fault of government policies, not free markets. Government told businesses to shut down to stop the pandemic and, as one meme goes, we had our 90-day Free Trial of socialism, how did you like it? Yes, it was socialism and many governors and mayors have shown their inner dictator as they issued all kinds of rules and regulations, some of which contradicted each other while destroying economic development and raising unemployment levels to depression levels. The idea of government determining what is essential and non-essential business is more power than any government should have. Many
states are reopening earlier than others, so we are looking at the nation rolling in bits and pieces as some states move forward and other states moving at a snail pace.
Pandemics are not good for the economy but shutting down the economy may be looked at as an extreme mistake and an over-reaction when the history of this pandemic is written. There was nothing to worry about according to many of our own scientists based on data coming from China in January along with their stooges in the WHO before a full scale panic erupted beginning in February when we realize that the Chinese Communist Party virus was indeed a health issue. We now know that the Chinese were lying plus World Health Organization proved to be their puppet. Original numbers showing high mortality rates with Italy at 10% scaring many, but these were based on incomplete data. Many models proved to be disastrous off base, including one by Niall Ferguson whose model was the basis of initial strategy dealing with the Pandemic. While one can’t be certain what Ferguson based his numbers on, his predictions of 2,000,000 Americans would have been similar to the Spanish Flu deaths. 650,000 Americans
died during the 1918-1920 Pandemic but that was in a population one third of today. On a per capita basis, this would work out to 2,000,000 dead today.
Jonathan Geach explained this further, “According to the Johns Hopkins coronavirus research center, COVID-19 has a CFR of about 5.7 percent in the United States. This means that someone who tests positive for the coronavirus has a 5.7 percent chance of dying of the disease. But this is not an accurate estimate of the fatality associated with COVID-19. Why? Because the sickest
people are tested first, and many people who are and were infected with COVID-19 are never tested at all…To put this in perspective: Last winter 250,000 people tested positive for the flu. 25,000 died. If these numbers are right, the CFR for the flu is 10 percent … but that can’t be right…And, in fact, it isn’t. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that, although only 250,000 people tested positive for the flu last year, 39 million people actually got it. Generally, only those who are older or otherwise unhealthy, or those who have a severe case, go to the doctor and get tested for the flu; everyone else just takes Motrin and Tylenol and stays home. This drives up the CFR dramatically.”