The tragedy of the COVID-19 pandemic appears to be entering the containment phase. Tens of thousands of Americans have died, and Americans are now desperate for sensible policymakers who have the courage to ignore the panic and rely on facts. Leaders must examine accumulated data to see what has actually happened, rather than keep emphasizing hypothetical projections; combine that empirical evidence with fundamental principles of biology established for decades; and then thoughtfully restore the country to function.
Five key facts are being ignored by those calling for continuing the near-total lockdown.
Lockdowns don’t work.
That simple sentence is enough to ignite a firestorm of controversy these days, whether you say it in public (to someone at least six feet away, of course) or online. As soon as the words leave your lips, they begin to be interpreted in extraordinary ways. Why do you want to kill old people? Why do you think the economy is more important than saving lives? Why do you hate science? Are you a shill for Trump? Why are you spreading misinformation about the severity of COVID?
But here’s the thing: there’s no evidence of lockdowns working. If strict lockdowns actually saved lives, I would be all for them, even if they had large economic costs. But, put simply, the scientific and medical case for strict lockdowns is paper-thin
Capitalism has been under siege for some time. Last October, Pope Francis wrote, “The battle against hunger and malnutrition will not end as long as the logic of the market prevails.” A commentary in Barron’s concluded, "Once the immediate public-health crisis has passed, there will be tremendous temptation to go back to the old ways. This must be rejected categorically," suggesting that the pandemic recession should end shareholder capitalism. “Coronavirus stimulus and disaster plans reveal cruelty of capitalist and political ‘reality,’” a headline at NBC News read. Naomi Klein, chair of media, culture, and feminist studies at Rutgers University, wrote at the Intercept about “Coronavirus capitalism — and how to beat it.” Climate activist Eric Holthaus tweeted, “We need a Green New Deal with a robust public safety net. ... Capitalism is failing in front of us.” Famed primatologist Jane Goodall said that the pandemic arose because of man’s disrespect for nature.
The list of such pronouncements is long.
But capitalism is really the solution, rather than the cause, of the human and economic catastrophe now underway. Economist Arthur Brooks, the former president of the American Enterprise Institute (where I work), noted, “Grinding material poverty was the norm for the vast majority of people through the vast majority of human history. … In just the last few hundred years, that all changed for a few billion people. So the right question today is: ‘Why did whole parts of the world cease to be poor for the first time in history?’”
The answer is free market capitalism.
At Johns Hopkins University, the biomedical engineer Joshua Vogelstein and his colleagues have been trying to identify patterns among people who have survived cytokine storms and people who haven’t. One correlation the team noticed was that people taking the drug tamsulosin (sold as Flomax, to treat urinary retention) seemed to fare well. Vogelstein is unsure why. Cytokine storms do trigger the release of hormones such as dopamine and adrenaline, which tamsulosin can partially block. The team is launching a clinical trial to see if the approach is of any help.
One of the more promising approaches is blocking cytokines themselves—once they’ve already been released into the blood. A popular target is one type of cytokine known as interleukin-6 (IL-6), which is known to peak at the height of respiratory failure. Benjamin Lebwohl, director of research at Columbia University’s Celiac Disease Center, says that people with immune conditions like celiac and inflammatory bowel disease may be at higher risk of severe cases of COVID-19. But he’s hopeful that medications that inhibit IL-6 or other cytokines could pare back the unhelpful responses while leaving others intact. Other researchers have seen promising preliminary results, and clinical trials are ongoing.
At least two people who died in early and mid-February had contracted the novel coronavirus, health officials in California said Tuesday, signaling the virus may have spread — and been fatal — in the United States weeks earlier than previously thought.
Tissue samples taken during autopsies of two people who died at home in Santa Clara County, Calif., tested positive for the virus, local health officials said in a statement. The victims died on Feb. 6 and Feb. 17, respectively.
Initially, the nation’s earliest coronavirus fatality was thought to have occurred on Feb. 29, in Kirkland, Wash., a suburb of Seattle that rapidly became a hot spot. In March, health officials there linked two Feb. 26 deaths to covid-19, the disease caused by the new virus.
The Santa Clara County fatalities push back the earliest coronavirus-related fatality by weeks, with the new findings potentially altering the timeline of the U.S. outbreak.
Effective protests raise awareness of those who are suffering but don’t have a significant voice in our political system. As the lockdown drags on, that awareness will be crucial. Many will hit a point where the trade-off will be between possibly getting COVID-19 and being able to feed their families. The disease doesn’t look so bad then.
