Conrad Black: Fear of COVID-19 is overblown, it's time to get the economy moving again

Certainly, the fear of COVID-19 is exaggerated, it is time for the economy to move again, it needs to be activated. Likewise, it is possible to be demoralized by the enthusiasm that an excessive number of Canadians seem to have to continue with the closure of the coronavirus.

Canada recorded 4,404 coronavirus deaths as of Thursday night; About 80 percent of them are among 20 percent of people over the age of 60, and generally with additional health problems that have compromised their immune systems. Therefore, you have discovered from the data that has come in the last two months, and especially from the more than eight million tests in the United States, that we have a significant problem for a fifth of people and a minimal problem for the great majority. In Canada, this means that among people over 65 there has been approximately one death for every 2,200 people, or between 22 and 1 percent, which is a pretty good probability for the elderly. And since 20 percent of deaths occur among 80 percent of the population under the age of 65, the chances of people in that age group being fatally affected by this pandemic are approximately one in nearly 40,000.

Situation to be stopped

It should be noted that the confinement of millions of people, beyond a certain point, does not reduce the possibilities of infection and this level of economic disturbance is an unprecedented international act of self-impoverishment. The human damage from this amount of artificial unemployment cannot be sustained much longer, and neither can the tax burden of trying to compensate those who have been unemployed as a result of public policy rather than any fault of their own or the normal forces of market freedom, and there is no excuse for it.

It is clear that the mildest tradition in this country has many attractions, and there are aspects of American society that are crazy and violent. But the docility of Canadians who endure this nonsense is discouraging. Intensified efforts must be made to provide and isolate the vulnerable, who are almost all aware and aware of the dangers and can act wisely. In this way, it has been indicated that the rest of the population should take risks and that is that they have practically no chance of a fatal encounter and little chance of unpleasant disease. This society must act sensibly to reduce the probability of dangerous infections, but stop this despicable cowardice as moles and imagine that fear of disease will be a policy that banishes it.

The entire effort against the coronavirus has undergone the progress of the mission: at first, it was designed to avoid the devastation that would once again represent the great plague of London in the mid-17th century.

Source: Conrad Black | National Post