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Showing posts from August, 2020

covid quarantines

A recent study of the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic by a member of the Federal Reserve board and economists at the Fed and M.I.T. compared cities that imposed stringent public health measures — including school and church closings, public gathering bans, quarantines and restricted business hours — with cities that opened faster and imposed fewer restrictions. The more stringent cities not only had fewer deaths but experienced “a relative increase in economic activity from 1919 onward.” I understand how this can be counterintuitive to many people, yet the lessons of history are there.