South Dakota and Sweden Fared Better than America’s Lockdown States

President Donald J. Trump and First Lady Melania Trump, joined by South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem and her husband Bryon Noem, participate in a tour of the Sculptor’s Studio Friday, July 3, 2020, at Mount Rushmore National Memorial in Keystone, S.D. (Official White House Photo by Andrea Hanks)

At LewRockwell.com, former congressman and presidential candidate, Dr. Ron Paul, asks how many lives could have been saved if America had taken a different course for fighting COVID-19. Paul notes that South Dakota and Sweden, places where hard lockdowns were avoided, have fared better than America’s lockdown states. He writes:

When Anthony Fauci demanded a lockdown of the economy for an indefinite period he actually seemed oblivious to the havoc it would wreak on the economy and on people’s lives. People like Fauci and others who demanded lockdowns and stay-at-home orders were still collecting their paychecks, so what did they care about anyone else?

Dr. Scott Atlas is not only a former top physician and hospital administrator: as a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution he also understands the policy implications of locking a country down.

On April 22, Dr. Atlas wrote an op-ed in The Hill titled, “The data is in — stop the panic and end the total isolation.” In the article he made five main points that are as true today as when he wrote them: an overwhelming majority of people are at no risk of dying from Covid; protecting older people prevents hospital overcrowding; locking down a population actually prevents the herd immunity necessary to defeat the virus; people are dying because they are not being treated for non-Covid illnesses; we know what part of the population is at risk and we can protect them.

Imagine how many thousands of lives could have been saved had the Administration listened to Dr. Atlas back in April. CDC Director Robert Redfield admitted last month that lockdowns were killing more Americans than Covid. “First do no harm” was thrown out the window and nearly six months of wrong-headed policy has done perhaps irreparable harm to the country.

South Dakota and Sweden did virtually nothing to lock down or restrict their populations and they actually fared better than lockdown states in the US. They had lower death rates, their hospitals were never over-run with Covid patients, and they have an economy to go back to.

We very much hope that Dr. Atlas will not “moderate” his message to please the blob in Washington. Trump’s Covid policies to this point have caused more harm than good. With Fauci out of the driver’s seat we finally have a chance of turning things around.

The economic impact of possibly ill-advised lockdowns infected the stock market. The media has used the COVID-19 narrative to hammer away at the president, who didn’t want to shut down the economy. Meanwhile, Europe’s lockdowns did little but cause “economic catastrophe and untold human suffering.”

Blue state governors went wild with lockdowns, and now their citizens are suffering for it. In June the top ten states for unemployment were Massachusetts (17.4%), New Jersey (16.6%), New York (15.7%), Nevada (15%), California (14.9%), Michigan (14.8%), Illinois (14.6%), Hawaii (13.9%), Pennsylvania (13%), and Delaware (12.5%).

Notice anything? These are all blue states where governors locked down hard.

Action Plan: If you live in one of those blue states, look for a better America for you and your family.