Is There a Risk of Heart Attacks in Older People?

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I remember vividly images of people's lungs that were being shown online to suggest that doctors are saying, I've never seen anything like this. Like a science fiction, alien creature had invaded our lungs and scrambled them in a ways that were unknown. There was an enormous anxiety produced by that across most ages, certainly for older people. And the word lockdown is a bit confusing. So we have countries like Israel where I am now, Australia, even now, very recently and certainly China, forbidding people from leaving their homes at all.

Economist Don Boudreaux of George Mason University talks about the pandemic with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Boudreaux argues that a perfect storm of factors created a huge overreaction, including unnecessary lockdowns that accomplished little at a very high cost in physical and emotional health. Instead, Boudreaux argues, we should have focused attention on the population most at risk of dying from COVID--the elderly and especially the elderly with co-morbidities. The conversation includes a discussion of externalities and the insights of Ronald Coase applied to the policies during the pandemic.