COVID-19 Anxiety Turns to COVID-19 Rage as We Figure Out Everything the Experts Got Wrong

https://pjmedia.com/columns/stacey-lennox/2020/05/22/covid-19-anxiety-turns-to-covid-19-rage-as-we-figure-out-everything-the-experts-got-wrong-n417078

Bad Models Lead to Bad Decisions:

Economies across the world were shut down based on a model that was blatant panic porn built on shoddy code. Even more maddening is the fact expert Neil Ferguson of the Imperial College had a history of getting almost every prediction he ever made completely wrong.

What We Should Have Known:

It should infuriate us to learn that the medical and research community knew what was killing people with SARS in 2003. It wasn’t viral pneumonia. It was their own immune systems in overdrive.

It was speculated at the time that any virus that migrated from animals to humans had this potential. Do you think a virus that had 80% overlap with the original SARS might? Apparently, that never occurred to our experts and we proceeded to put elderly patients on vents for a pneumonia they likely didn’t have.

Close the Schools:

Did you know the entire idea of closing schools during a pandemic was hatched by a 15-year-old’s science fair project in 2006? You really can’t make this up. However, the experts are telling us they are not sure opening schools in the fall is safe and universities may do well to continue distance learning. This is despite the fact the virus rarely has a serious impact on children and young adults.

In fact, children severely affected by COVID-19 almost always have a preexisting condition. Even then, mortality is near zero. Also, countries that didn’t close the schools have not had a significantly more severe experience with COVID-19 than those that did.