The Omicron COVID Variant Cannot Result in More Lockdowns

COVID variants are a lot like iPhones, there seems to be a new one coming out every couple months. And, unbelievably, they’re more costly! 

Currently, the Center for Disease Control has identified 10 different variants of the COVID-19 virus. The new variant on the block now is the Omicron variant, and it seems to be raising a lot more eyebrows than previous variants rarely spoken about like the Mu variant. The severity and effects of it are uncertain, as the World Health Organization has stated that the virus may be easier to contract, the chair of the South African Medical Association – where the variant originated, says the symptoms displayed so far have been mild and can be treated at home. In a recent statement, Dr. Anthony Fauci says that he is not ruling out lockdowns as a way of combating the Omicron variant. These lockdowns cannot occur as they would be absolutely crippling for consumers’ mental and physical health, car buying and lending as well as other transactions, and the recovering American economy.

Plus, they simply do not work. In early 2020, pretty much everywhere in America was under lockdown, with stay-at-home orders issued and businesses shut down. Despite massive government authority to keep the country locked down, new cases of COVID-19 stayed consistently between 20 and 30 thousand daily from early April until mid-June of 2020. When contrasted with Japan, the numbers are unbelievable. Japan, a country with no governmental lockdowns, and whose federal and local governments lack the authority to impose lockdown measures, averaged between 60 and 300 new COVID cases daily between early April and mid-June of 2020. Japan is a country with around half the population of the United States but experienced around one hundredth of the COVID cases as America. 

One thing the lockdowns did accomplish, however, was crippling the US economy. A strong economy with a 3.5% unemployment rate in February of 2020 collapsed almost overnight. By April of 2020, unemployment hit 14.8%, as people lined up for food banks and the government was forced to pass emergency unemployment benefit increases. The U.S., a country which experiences constant economic growth, saw GDP shrinkage from 2019 to 2020 of more than $500 billion. 

Locking down for the Omicron variant would be a colossal mistake. Lockdowns have been demonstrated to be ineffective at slowing the spread of COVID-19, while they have been proven effective at crippling the economy and putting people into miserable financial situations that credit unions are left to clean up after.