Lockdowns Could Potentially Cause ‘More Deaths Than COVID-19 Itself’

Investment bank JP Morgan claims to have found that coronavirus infection rates have decreased in states where lockdowns have been lifted, and that continued lockdowns might cause “more deaths than COVID-19 itself.”

Although the lockdowns may have been initially justified due to “the absence of conclusive data,” they say that the current data is in favor of reopening. “Full lockdown policies in some European countries did not produce any change in pandemic parameters,” they argue, and “virtually everywhere, infection rates have declined after reopening, even after allowing for an appropriate measurement lag.”

The lockdowns were continued even “while our knowledge of the virus and lack of effectiveness of total lockdowns evolved.”

JP Morgan said that while “millions of livelihoods were being destroyed by these lockdowns,” they were “administered with little consideration that they might not only cause economic devastation but potentially more deaths than COVID-19 itself.”

The paper argues that despite recent data that shows infection rates declining in places that have lifted lockdowns, “politics emerged as a new and significant risk,” with partisan divides and political implications that influenced the government’s response.

“Despite the conditions for re-opening being mostly met across the US, it is not yet happening in the largest economic regions,” they argue. “Worrying populism related to the virus is putting at risk global cooperation and trade.”

In the United States, “the response of the current administration to COVID-19 became a focal point of...

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