Fox News medical contributor Dr. Nicole Saphier and TrendMacro chief investment officer Donald L. Luskin.
This is an unofficial transcript meant for reference. Accuracy is not guaranteed.
Aims to boots on the ground by
two thousand and twenty four
Steve
Steve Brian. Thank you.
Meanwhile, down here on earth,
businesses around the country
still closed and millions out of
work.
So have the lockdowns been
effective?
Well, a foxnews dot com, Op Ed says
Data shows the Covid 19
lockdowns are a failed
experiment and did not contain
the spread of the disease.
The author of that article,
Donald Luskin, from the analytics
firm trim, macrojoins us right
now,
Fox NEWS, medical contributor and
author of Make America healthy
again, Dr Nicole Saphier,
good morning to both of you
hey there
good morning,
Steve Don this op Ed, you wrote
really got our attention
in particular, at the end of the
first sentence, first paragraph
you say, but now the evidence
proves that lockdowns were an
expensive treatment with serious
side effects and no benefit to
society.
You know you would think the
logic and Dr Saphier is going
to talk about that in a moment.
If you keep people away from
each other, that would have done
something. But you said you
analyzed the data and thats not
the case.
Look there is always a
difference between theory and
practice
sounds great. If you say it fast,
the you should contain a
contagious disease by keeping
people away from each other.
The reality is, if you look at it
country by country state by
state Zip code by zip code, you
track peoples, cell phones. If
they were out in the world and
sheltering in place,
it turns out. It actually makes
no difference
that the states and zip codes
and the countries that sheltered
the most didnt get any better
results than the ones that
sheltered the least
its expensive to lockdown. It
cost people their jobs,
it cost people their health,
so dont do it. Unless there is
strong correlation with good
results
and the numbers are in,
there is no correlation
Steve. You also write that the
only factor that seems to make a
demonstrable difference is the
intensity of mass transit use
so rather than lockdown the
country, maybe we should just
address mass transit.
It wasnt until New York had
already passed peak cases and
peak deaths that they finally
decided that shut down those
filthy subways at night and
clean them.
Now, what a concept to clean the
New York City subways?
You think that would have
occurred to these geniuses a
couple months earlier, but no,
it turns out statistically
thats the only thing that makes
a difference:
age, race, income, sunshine,
doesnt matter its just rapid
transit,
Steve all right, Dr Saphier.
What do you think?
Well, you know, I think that
any level of criticism and
skepticism are crucial when it
comes to policy, especially
health policy, because public
health can be messy,
but the truth is Steve that I
can find a model or anything to
fit whatever narrative of your
choice.
But, ultimately, when you
take when you look at the
different areas of the United
States, the northeast one that
was hit the hardest, the reason
that it was hit the hardest
one- it is a large urban travel
hub.
We had international travel
early on
the virus was spreading before
we even knew it was,
and unfortunately those
lockdowns happened at a time
where we already had massive
circulating virus and those
lockdowns, coupled with failed
policies and decisions led to
these high deaths,
specifically at nursing homes.
Now then, you see looking at the
same cell phone tracking data.
You actually saw the next wave
of cases say in the southwest
and in the south was from people
directly traveling from the
northeast.
Had we perhaps halted interstate
travel, you would have seen less
cases going further
and now, thankfully, we have a
decrease in new cases and we
also have a decrease in deaths.
The only place that you are
seeing rise in cases right now
is in the Midwest.
Why is that?
This is a more sprawled area, but
the cases are slowly trickling
there.
You have kids going back to
school and theyre going to have
outbreaks
bottom line. A lot of lockdowns
were not implemented correctly.
They really werent Steve
thats. Why have you such
detrimental consequences? Because
of this?
Had we focused more on the
social distancing, the
mask wearing and really just
gaining knowledge of the vice
and how its transmitted it
would have been much better as
well as less afternoons.
Interstate travel,
Steve Don final word, going
forward its been suggested.
There could be a second wave or
flare up coming with the onset
of the flu season. As well
Correct
Steve, your advice to the
medical professionals regarding
policy and the administration
would be what
it
would be, do no harm.
We have thrown enough people out
of work.
We have closed down the health
system effectively to people
suffering from anything at all
other than covid.
We have got more divorces, more
alcoholism, more suicide, more
depression,
people arent getting their
cancer screening.
They are not going to emergency
rooms.
Enough is enough.
The data is in
lockdowns dont help
lets not inflict that upon
ourselves. Again,
that is my advice,
Steve and Dr Saphier.
While I agree that all of
those are negative consequences
that needed to have been
avoided, I think lockdown does
have some effect, but I dont
think that should be a strict as
they once were, because, as we
know, the negative consequences
likely will far outweigh that of
the virus itself.
Steve good chat with both of
you, Dr Nicole Saphier and
Donald Luskin, who has an op ed.
Transcript generated on 2020-09-08.