Did the lockdowns worsen the COVID outbreak?

The response to the COVID-19/Coronavirus/Wuhan Flu is unquestionably unprecedented. Never before have we shut down the majority of society worldwide – economic and societal concerns be damned, quarantined large groups of healthy people – sometimes indefinitely, cancelled weddings, funerals and religious services – then allowed mass protests and riots and implemented large-scale masking requirements. Never before, at least in free nations.

The impetus for these restrictions was to save lives. The goal was to ‘flatten the curve,’ so the hospital systems were not overwhelmed, but that morphed into “crush the...