American Institute For Economic Research
| ...a nearly century-old libertarian think tank appended to the American Investment Services private advisory firm |
[via The Washington Gazette] One of the most controversial and heavily debated responses to the pandemic, and one that was and continues to be used by various governments, is Shelter in Place (SIP) orders, commonly referred to as lockdowns. This week saw Australia institute another SIP for the Greater Sydney region in New South Wales. These SIP orders have become familiar in news coverage, and in the logic they use to combat the pandemic. Countless articles and studies lauded these policies as being some of the best ways to prevent deaths from the pandemic.
While familiar in form and logic, evidence about SIP’s long-run effectiveness remains scant. Many of the claims about their efficacy have come from epidemiological models that have largely failed to accurately predict real-world outcomes from the pandemic. In the face of this issue and in an attempt to better understand the long-run effects, measures beyond simply counting cases and deaths directly from Covid have moved to the front of many policy discussions. Increasingly, references to excess deaths have dominated discussions of the pandemic and how to respond to it.
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