More COVID Conundrums

I see in this morning's news that yesterday there were protests across Europe and the UK against continued COVID lockdowns. A quick review of the situation indicates that, at least in the UK and Germany, some restrictions were briefly relaxed, but severe lockdowns have been reimposed in the UK, with the threat of the same in Germany.

It's easy to be lulled by conditions in the US, where states like Texas, Florida, and Arizona have relaxed most or all restrictions, including mask requirements, while even in California, which has consistently been the strictest in the US, the lockdowns have eased, with indoor dining now resuming at 25% capacity in places like Los Angeles.

On March 2, Texas lifted all COVID restrictions. More than two weeks later, cases there continue to decline, although the COVID moral entrepreneurs across the country insisted at the time that this was "reckless". US data continues to indicate that there is little correlation between severity of lockdowns and prevalence of COVID infections, with the least restrictive regimes showing a decline in cases just as much as the most restrictive, like California.

Meanwhile, a Canadian visitor informs me that all worship services of any size in British Columbia have been completely banned, indoor or outdoor, since November. Religious services have been limited to ten attendees in Ontario’s “grey” zones, of which Toronto remains one, but recent lobbying efforts spearheaded by the Cardinal Archbishop of Toronto have led to the regulations being changed to allow 15% of venue’s capacity to attend a religious service.

In the US, while it took the Supreme Court to do this, indoor worship services are allowed up to 25% building capacity in areas where they were previously forbidden -- but other states now impose no restrictions at all. Notwithstandng, US cases are declining everywhere.

Also in the US, as far as I can tell, there's little public resistance to vaccines. In Europe, a substantial component of anti-lockdown protests is also anti-vax. The attitude in LA is basically gimme the darn shot, let's get on with things! The Archdiocese of Los Angeles announced that the vaccine is moral and Catholics should get it. While some groups, including African-Americans, seem reluctant to get vaccinated, this may derive from historical suspicion of medical experiments conducted on minorities -- but there is very little public resistance.

The big puzzle continues to be why COVID measures have become so disparate worldwide and in the US, but it appears that even the strictest US regimes are less severe than those in many other countries, while statistics in the US continue to improve. So far, there's been little apparent interest in studies that might examine this -- probably because the medical and philanthropic establishment that funds such studies would not like the potential result.

It suggests to me that, even as COVID restrictions have infringed unnecessarily on natural rights, constitutional protections, and the threat of retaliation at the ballot box, have continued to be more effective in the US than elsewhere.