More people lost to lockdown than to virus

The New York Times and The Washington Post recently led the mainstream media's headlines that the death toll from COVID-19 had reached the 100,000 milestone in the United States. But even as we move into June, only 326 for every one million have died, and a high percentage of the deaths have been confined to four northeastern states.

So David Ridenour, president of the National Center for Public Policy Research, says it was a mistake to shut down so much of the U.S. economy.

"Yes, it was a mistake for us to do the wholesale shutdown of the economy. Obviously there are people who are at risk when they become unemployed," he points out. "You have a spike in the number of heart attacks. You have a spike in the number of strokes. You have a spike in the number of suicides and overdoses. And by the time all is said and done, we will lose more people to lockdown than we will from COVID-19."

Ridenour adds that the actual death toll is massively exaggerated

"That's because hospitals get reimbursements with a 20-percent bonus on top of their ordinary fees if it's a COVID-19 death, and that gives them the incentive to call everything a COVID-19 death," he reports. "So, yes -- this was a massive, massive mistake."

Ridenour further submits that this was a crisis that should have been handled with a scalpel instead of a cleaver.