Five months later, the evidence suggests lockdowns were an overly blunt and economically costly tool. Prior to Covid-19, lockdowns weren’t part of the standard epidemic tool kit, which was primarily designed with flu in mind. Instead of lockdowns, it imposed only modest restrictions to keep cases at levels its hospitals could handle. But they say the plan also would leave economic output 10% higher than if a second round of lockdowns were imposed. “Economic shutdowns are a blunt and very costly tool.”The U.S. South and Southwest have provided some real-time experiments in targeted lockdowns.

Source: Wall Street Journal August 24, 2020 15:18 UTC