Since the New U.K. COVID-19 Variant, New Cases Fell by aThird
pa href=https://www.cato.org/people/alan-reynolds hreflang=undAlan Reynolds/a/p
pA seemingly scary story in emThe Wall Street Journal/em, by Jason Douglas and Joanna Sugden, warns of “a more‐contagious and a href=https://www.wsj.com/articles/lessons-from-the-u-k-about-a-more-contagious-covid-19-variant-11614253429possibly deadlier coronavirus variant” in the U.K/a., implying that British cases and deaths are spreading faster than before./p
pThe reason the new “more contagious” strain is supposedly spreading so rapidly, they suggest, is because the British government failed to continue anbsp;suitably strict lockdown on businesses, workers, and consumers./p
p“When lockdown lifted in early December,” write Douglas and Sugden, “the new variant went national.” But the U.K. never really “lifted” the lockdown. They just a href=https://inews.co.uk/news/uk/lockdown-end-time-when-2nd-december-shops-pubs-open-england-new-covid-tier-restrictions-start-777596eased it modestly/a — in lower‐risk locations‐ from Dec. 2nbsp;to Jan 4 (“until at least mid‐February”). And the authors of this story neglect to tell readers what happened to COVID-19 infections and deaths recently about three months after the new variant “went national.”/p
pWhat happened is that the 7‐day average of new cases has fallen by anbsp;third‐ from 14,899 on December 1nbsp;to 10,089 on February 26, according to ema href=https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/world/europe/united-kingdom-coronavirus-cases.htmlThe New York Times/a/em. COVID-19 is not spreading faster with the new variant. On the contrary, COVID-19 is spreading much more slowly than in early December, when this emWall Street Journal/em story marked the start of anbsp;supposedly frightening new national variant./p
pSuch inconvenient facts would not fit very well in this otherwise exciting story about new variants of COVID-19, which experts wrongly predicted would make infections grow more rapidly./p
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