Dr. Doug Allen is an economist at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, BC. He has done an extensive analysis of the research from around the world on the policy of lockdown during the pandemic. His conclusions are startling.

It may seem obvious that the benefit of lockdown is the prevention of death due to the virus. The cost may be felt in the economy, but it will be short-lived. Except neither of the those things are true, particularly on the cost side of the ledger. In this podcast, one of my longer episodes, Dr. Allen will highlight some costs that many will not have considered and that seems to include our political leaders.

Some may find this episode controversial, others may find it enlightening. However, it is important that in the world of education, we are willing to question, discuss and analyze based on facts. Sometimes this seems empirical, calculated and perhaps cold. But decisions like the ones we have lived with since March of 2020 can't be based on emotion and our society only advances when we listen, learn, think and grow.

Doug mentions a website and some other papers linked here:
https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus
https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w27719/w27719.pdf
http://www.sfu.ca/~allen/LockdownReport.pdf

Contact Dr. Allen:
allen@sfu.ca