The Costs of the Pandemic

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I want to focus on the costs of our response, which are often forgotten. You have these direct health-related costs where availability of treatment or the willingness of people to get the treatment was reduced. People out of work, people losing their businesses, their livelihoods. For me, the most interesting set of these, I'll throw in. Let's add the children who lose years or so of schooling. To me, that's the most stunning, inexplicable part of this.

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.