THIS --> Brit Hume shares state-by-state COVID data that CHALLENGES shut downs as leading contributor in saving lives

Sam J. | 1:21 PM on April 13, 2020

As we’ve said time and time again, Brit Hume’s feed is often filled with information and stats the rest of the media for whatever reason doesn’t seem all that keen to share. Like this article on how the state-by-state shutdown effectiveness data actually CHALLENGES the claim that shutdowns are the leading (or even meaningful) contributor to saving lives.

And considering we are seeing rumblings of Trump working with governors to start opening the states/country back up, this is important:

Interesting: “key takeaway may be that it is reasonable to challenge the conventional wisdom that shut downs are the leading (or even meaningful) contributor to saving lives…compared to other measures such as washing hands, cancelling large events,” etc. https://t.co/wulavawmhD

— Brit Hume (@brithume) April 13, 2020

From medium.com:

It would be reasonable to assume that Statewide shutdowns almost certainly does slow down the spread of the virus to some unknown extent. What we don’t know is how effective a State wide shut down is compared to other measures taken such as washing hands, wearing masks, avoiding large events, or letting multiplicities make their own decisions with local restrictions. The above charts are one data point that would at least indicate a very weak correlation between speed of shutting down and saving lives.

Statewide shutdowns cost us trillions of dollars, deprives children of a full education, and ruins many lives; could washing hands, wearing masks, and avoiding large events be potentially more effective while a lot less damaging?

A lot is still unknown, but these are exactly the kinds of questions we need to begin to answer so we know when and what social distancing measures we should loosen first, and it should not be taboo to challenge the wisdom of the road we are on.