>Lockdowns work and they worked well given what what was known at the time.
Objection, arguing facts not in evidence.
Edit: in response to the part you added after your original post:
>While the social and economic cost is now known to be immense, public health officials have a duty of care to the most vulnerable in society.
The social and economic costs were mostly predictable back before the lockdowns ever happened. People opposed to the lockdowns were practically screaming what the consequences would be. They were ignored with calls of "If it saves one life!" and "You're killing grandma!"
Meanwhile it's come out that several (if not all) countries that imposed lockdowns didn't even attempt to do a rudimentary cost-benefit analysis prior to locking everything down.
how do you square this with the fact that more and more people are calling in sick and many are continuing to die now that much of the western world has given up on pandemic restrictions?
Only if your premise that the labor shortages (and other economic issues) are caused by pandemic deaths is correct, mind you. The overwhelming majority of deaths (around 80%) from the pandemic in all countries was amongst retirement age individuals, most of whom are out of the workforce.
200,000 working age people in the US dying isn't nothing. It could also be explained by disabilities as a result of COVID and people unable to work as a result of that.
it could also be explained by All Cause Mortality being higher in vaccinated populations than unvaccinated (which, by the way, is the proper use of ACM when you compare two populations with a control).
Objection, arguing facts not in evidence.
Edit: in response to the part you added after your original post:
>While the social and economic cost is now known to be immense, public health officials have a duty of care to the most vulnerable in society.
The social and economic costs were mostly predictable back before the lockdowns ever happened. People opposed to the lockdowns were practically screaming what the consequences would be. They were ignored with calls of "If it saves one life!" and "You're killing grandma!"
Meanwhile it's come out that several (if not all) countries that imposed lockdowns didn't even attempt to do a rudimentary cost-benefit analysis prior to locking everything down.
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-lockdown-files-rishi...