Empower Wisconsin | Feb. 4,  2022

When Gov. Tony Evers announced his first “Stay-at Home” order locking down Wisconsin, he appealed to “folks” to “remember their Wisconsin values of kindness, compassion, empathy and respect.”

“Unfortunately, that means no potlucks, no play dates and no dinner parties,” he said.

It meant thousands of businesses shuttered, hundreds of thousands of Wisconsinites out of work, children robbed of a decent education, depression and alcoholism and drug addiction and suicide rates skyrocketing, isolation, mothers and fathers dying alone in nursing homes.

Real kind, real compassionate, Tony.

And it turns out, all of that misery was for nothing.

A comprehensive analysis by by Johns Hopkins University finds that “lockdowns should be rejected out of hand as a pandemic policy instrument.” In short, locking down society on threat of the COVID-19 virus abjectly failed.

“Overall, we conclude that lockdowns are not an effective way of reducing mortality rates during a pandemic, at least not during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic,” the study, “Meta-Analysis of the Effects of Lockdowns on COVID-19 Mortality,” asserts.

But we knew this before.

“Our results are in line with the World Health Organization Writing Group (2006), who state, ‘Reports from the 1918 influenza pandemic indicate that social-distancing measures did not stop or appear to dramatically reduce transmission…’”

So much for “following the science,” governor.

“In Edmonton, Canada, isolation and quarantine were instituted; public meetings were banned; schools, churches, colleges, theaters, and other public gathering places were closed; and business hours were restricted without obvious impact on the epidemic. Our findings are also in line with Allen’s (2021) conclusion: The most recent research has shown that lockdowns have had, at best, a marginal effect on the number of Covid 19 deaths,” the study notes.

Two Tonys badly hurt Wisconsin with their bad science and polices: Tony Evers and Tony Fauci.

“The aura of  ‘expert’ has lost its luster during Covid, as our supposedly bigger brains have been proved wrong repeatedly,” writes National Review’s Wesley J. Smith.

The Johns Hopkins study makes clear what even the densest scientist or politician should know.

“Mandates only regulate a fraction of our potential contagious contacts and can hardly regulate nor enforce handwashing, coughing etiquette, distancing in supermarkets, etc.”

Evers’ lockdowns — like most of his policies — hurt much more than they helped.

Yet, he kept pushing them, despite a growing body of science screaming, “Houston, we have a problem.”

We lost a lot of life because of this governor’s “life-saving” measures. We lost a lot of time with the people we love, and no government stimulus check will bring that back.

“Indeed, we do find some evidence that limiting gatherings was counterproductive and increased COVID-19 mortality,” the study states.

Thanks for nothing, Gov. Evers.