What is the goal of the lockdown? It was flattening the curve, to make sure hospitals could handle critical patients without being overwhelmed. Honest modelers acknowledged a flattened curve would lengthen the pandemic and possibly cause a second deadlier spike next winter. 1/

Now that the curve is flattened, government health experts and governors have moved the goal post. So what is the goal of the lockdown now, and is the goal achievable without more widespread economic devastation, new poverty that will also cause a spike in mortality? 2/

The policy goal that matters during this pandemic is minimizing human suffering and loss of life. When we debate the merits of sweeping lockdowns on human activity, we are not debating lives versus economic prosperity. We are debating total lives saved versus total lives lost. 3/

If the unstated goal of government health experts and politicians is, now, to keep us all locked down until the threat of infection is eliminated, the unintended result will be a humanitarian catastrophe that will primarily hit those at the most vulnerable edges of society. 4/