Quote:
Originally Posted by jfman
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That report is all kind of 'woo'!
I started reading it got to the section 'Stringency of measures has no effect on total deaths assigned to COVID-19'. It looks very formal and scientifically written but doesn't bear any scrutiny. The two references (Chaudhry
et al. and De Larochelambert
et al.) are worth a read as this report very much cherry picks their conclusions.
Both reports state that socieconomic factors are more important drivers of outcomes than lockdowns but the first report also states that lockdowns spread out the pandemic over a longer period - flattening the curve in Boris speak. The hypothetical question will always be what would the mortality rate from COVID infections be with a short sharp peak that overwhelms hospitals. The second report states that a very rapid lockdown of international travel such as seen in Taiwan, New Zealand and Iceland was very effective.
I kind of gave up after that as this author is pulling out statements with little regard for the overall conclusions of the studies he is citing.