On the basis of alarmist modelling, often commissioned by governments and amplified by sensationalist media, panicked politicians discarded all basic ideas about proportionality and the rule of law to criminalise everyday life and exert unprecedented controls over the citizenry.
From the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020, all Australian governments adopted the attitude that any public health mitigation measure was on the table, and little to no consideration was given to the costs of the measures that were adopted.
This is the subject of new research published by the Institute of Public Affairs, which for the first time in Australia calculates many of the costs of the nation's Covid zealotry up to June 2022. In the report, Hard Lessons: Reckoning the Humanitarian, Economic, and Social Costs of Zero-Covid, we find that the total economic and fiscal cost of the Australian COVID-19 response was no less than A$938.4 billion (£550.6 billion) to June 2022. This report identifies:
$595.8 billion in state and federal Government to enforce Covid policies and stimulate the economy;
$259.8 billion in lost economic activity because of the restrictions and economic shutdowns;
$82.8 billion in inflation related costs due to expansive monetary and fiscal policies, a cost which is set to only increase more and more over the next couple of years.
The research also calculates how much children
suffered in terms of schooling. Despite being the safest cohort in
society when it comes to COVID-19, children were routinely sent home to
learn remotely or not learn at all. We estimate children in the state of
Victoria would have lost about 12 weeks of reading skills and 17 weeks
of numeracy skills, something which for many will never be recovered.
Even on the most basic metric, lockdowns failed. In terms of the number
of years of life, the costs of joblessness because of the initial
nationwide lockdowns in March and April 2020 were about 31 times more
costly than the maximum possible years of life saved by lockdowns
throughout 2020 and 2021.
Even in the state of Victoria, whose
Labor Government enthusiastically established a world-renowned Covid
police state, politicians are no longer touting their pandemic response
in the lead up to the state election in November.
Likewise, the
former federal Liberal/Nationals Coalition Government, which was voted
out of office earlier this year, rarely boasted of its Covid response.
Governments of the Covid era appear to have accepted the failure of the
Covid-elimination approach, but rather than confront the reality of
this failure are just pretending that it never happened.
...<<<Read More>>>...
