
Stanford's John Ioannidis Tried to Warn Trump Against Lockdowns in March - jennyyang
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/stephaniemlee/ioannidis-trump-white-house-coronavirus-lockdowns
======
ARandomerDude
This is an unvarnished hit piece on a scientist after months of hindsight.

"Don't ever be wrong or we'll punish you" is how you stifle science.

Edit: in light of comments, I'll add that I'm not saying he _is_ wrong, but
the culture of _don 't be wrong_ is crippling.

~~~
dannyw
It’s also not even clear whether he’s wrong! We now know COVID19 is far less
deadly than we thought, including the fact that it predominately affects those
in their 70s and above. But we also know that lockdowns have:

• causes cancer patients to miss cancer treatment, with an increase in deaths
• caused people to defer medical treatment, including vital “elective” surgery
as well as diagnosis of treatable conditions • caused harm to mental health
and increase in domestic violence, which has led to suicides, and will lead to
more suicides • caused students to get a worse education and abnormal social
development; with unknown effects on the rest of their life • caused
significant damage to the economy, limiting the economic potential of the
future and the kids that are growing up now

When we tally up all the damage, and compare it versus Covid deaths of a no-
lockdown but ban large events, isolate seniors approach, which one will win?

And I might get some flak for saying this, but I don’t believe all lives to be
equal. A teenager who kills themselves has lost 70 years of life. A senior in
their 90s who died has quite possibility lost 5 or less years of life.

If you’re interested in researching this further, I’d encourage you to check
out LockdownSkepticsm on reddit. We aren’t against public health measures like
universal mask wearing, but we are for evidence-based assessment of what has
lower TOTAL damage.

And yes, the initial data supporting lockdowns did turn out to be incredibly
wrong. We know because we went from estimating 2-3% CFR to 0.4% CFR (CDC, May
2020). And today, we know how effective MASKS are, which public health
authorities discouraged during the start...

~~~
tzs
In the US, 35% of the deaths among Hispanics were people under 65, and 29% of
the deaths among non-white people. 13% for whites. Overall, 24.4% of deaths
were from people under 65. [1]

That doesn't sound like predominately affecting people in their 70s and above
to me.

[1]
[https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6928e1.htm](https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6928e1.htm)

~~~
nkurz
That's an interesting report. Thanks for linking it!

------
yokaze
So the blame shifting had begun.

