The average age of those dying of Covid-19 in the U.S. is 75 (1). In other words, those dying, on average, are at best a few years from realizing their full life expectancy. This is, without doubt, a tragic loss, however we lose far more from implementing lockdowns.
First of all, the economic damage caused by the lockdowns is extensive. Unemployment rates in the U.S. have increased massively, from 3.8% in February to 14.4% in April (2). This has destroyed the livelihoods of the tens of millions put out of work, in addition to those that used to be self-employed and those who used to run small businesses which cannot survive without income. In turn, as consumer spending drives the economy, this leads to further downturn and an additional reduction in G.D.P. Moreover, larger businesses are more able to survive relative to small ones (in addition to being more likely to have recieved bailouts), which leads to increased monopoly. Of course, less developed nations are going to be hit worse by this, with the U.N. food chief predicting that an additional 130 million will starve worldwide over the next year due to these lockdown measures (3).
Secondly, the loss of many of the most basic freedoms has occurred. Under lockdown, one cannot visit friends, go to work (if not a keyworker), go on dates, go to the gym, etc. Put simply, one cannot go about their regular life. Their bodily autonomy has been completely taken by the state. When one cannot even go about their daily life, taking on themselves any risk that that may entail, the government has overstepped it's bounds. Such restrictions are totalitarian overprotection, particularly considering that average death rates of those infected are below 1%, which has been replicated in a multitude of studies (4,5,6,7,8,9,10). Surely if one desires to be protected from Covid-19, one can simply stay at home without being forced to by their governments. If you are a consenting adult why should you be prevented from taking a minute risk of death in order to live a normal life? This is not to mention the very real mental health cost of such restrictions.
Finally, our immune systems need practice in order to function properly. We need to be exposed to bacteria and viruses in order to have a healthy immune system. A good analogy might be a person who has never lifted weights, who suddenly finds themself in a situation where they must do some heavy lifting, perhaps in order to move furniture. They will find their muscles inadequate for the task due to the fact that their muscles are not used to being used for heavy lifting; they are not adapted to the task. This goes for our immune system as well, and if we do not get exposure to pathogens, we can even develop autoimmune disorders (11).
This point is further cemented by the fact that humans and pathogens are in an evolutionary arms race with one another. In this case, Covid-19 appears to have recently mutated to take advantage of humans, as opposed to its predecessor's prey; bats. Covid-19 will adapt further to our biology and immune system, and if our immune systems are not exposed to it, it will gain an advantage. This is because the virus is currently figuring out how best to exploit us, yet our immune systems, for the most part, are not figuring our how best to destroy Covid-19, as they have not had the benefit of exposure. Indeed, this is exactly how vaccines work, by allowing our immune system to practice on a weakened pathogen. We are instead shielding ourselves from this exposure as much as possible, while the virus continues to evolve and adapt. It would be better to expose our immune systems to this form of the virus, rather than risk allowing the virus to train itself in how best to fight us while our immune system is not training itself in how best to fight Covid-19. In fact, our immune systems are currently training less than usual against all pathogens, due to masks, social distancing, disinfectant being sprayed everywhere that people regularly touch, more frequent hand washing etc. As aforementioned, this lack of practice weakens our immune systems. Like it or not, this virus is too infectious for us to eliminate it completely, and so we have to adapt to it and give our immune systems the chance to learn how to fight it. The alternative risks losing the evolutionary arms race between us and the virus.
Sources:
(1)
https://data.cdc.gov/NCHS/Provisional-COVID-19-Death-Counts-by-Sex-Age-and-S/9bhg-hcku(2)
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/06/11/unemployment-rose-higher-in-three-months-of-covid-19-than-it-did-in-two-years-of-the-great-recession/(3)
https://insight.wfp.org/wfp-chief-warns-of-hunger-pandemic-as-global-food-crises-report-launched-3ee3edb38e47?gi=915dd16b2a0b(4)
https://www.bmj.com/content/369/bmj.m1327(5)
https://www.biospace.com/article/multiple-studies-suggest-covid-19-mortality-rate-may-be-lower-than-expected-/(6)
https://www.livescience.com/death-rate-lower-than-estimates.html(7)
https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/los-angeles-study-suggests-virus-much-more-widespread-1.4904990(8)
https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20200418/new-model-shows-covid-more-widespread-less-severe(9)
https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1278393/Germany-news-economy-threat-Peter-Altmaier-coronavirus-return-COVID-19-latest(10 )
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/04/09/many-people-may-already-have-immunity-coronavirus-german-study/
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