STUDY: Whitmer’s Lockdowns Had No Impact On Health; But Caused Great Social And Economic Harm
Gretchen Whitmer’s Anti-Science Lockdowns Decimated Jobs, Destroyed Small Family Businesses, Created Mental Health Crisis
LANSING, MI – A meta-analysis of dozens of studies by the Johns Hopkins Institute for Applied Economics concluded that lockdowns like those implemented in Michigan by Governor Gretchen Whitmer and her administration had little to no effect on public health, but they did cause great economic and social harm.
The Johns Hopkins’ study was summarized:
“While this meta-analysis concludes that lockdowns have had little to no public health effects, they have imposed enormous economic and social costs where they have been adopted. In consequence, lockdown policies are ill-founded and should be rejected as a pandemic policy instrument.”
Whitmer often touted having the “strictest rules in the nation.” Her orders were also referred to as “Draconian,” and the “most severe in the midwest.”
As a result of Whitmer’s lockdowns, Michigan has the 9th worst unemployment rate in the U.S. and by far the worst in the Midwest. Michigan ranks sixth for residents moving out of state. Inflation is soaring as prices have jumped 7.5%, while personal incomes have dropped 9.5%, the steepest decline in the nation.
Whitmer’s nursing home policy was also among the worst in the country – placing vulnerable residents at risk. Similar to former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, Whitmer ordered long-term care facilities to accept COVID-positive patients at the beginning of the pandemic.
“The science and the data is clear – Gretchen Whitmer’s lockdowns and non-scientific policies did significantly more harm than good,” said Tori Sachs, executive director of the Michigan Freedom Fund.
“Whitmer copied Cuomo’s order placing COVID positive patients into nursing homes. Then Whitmer ordered multiple school closures and extended economic and business restrictions that negatively impacted the most vulnerable families in our state the most. Whitmer’s lockdowns made the pandemic worse and Michigan families are still paying the price.”
Detroit Community Schools, home to over 50,000 students, closed to in-person learning for more than six weeks earlier this year, while Flint Public Schools closed “indefinitely” despite receiving the most COVID funding per student in the state to re-open.
The Michigan Freedom Fund released a digital ad campaign calling on Whitmer to reopen schools. Following the ad, Whitmer finally called the Flint school superintendent, but the district remains closed.
The Johns Hopkins study also concludes that “stay-at-home” orders may have made the pandemic worse by isolating families indoors.
Early in the pandemic, Governor Whitmer famously banned Michigan citizens from using motor boats, prohibited golfing and the sale of seeds and gardening supplies, landscaping, and banned travel between two houses. Whitmer came under fire after her husband tried to pull rank to get his boat in the water before Memorial Day, and was caught traveling to their home up north.
The Michigan Freedom Fund works to advance conservative ideas, hold our government accountable to taxpayers, and protect Freedom, opportunity, and workers’ Constitutional rights. For more information, please visit MichiganFreedomFund.com.
