The price of pandemic lockdowns REVEALED: Massachusetts paid THREE times as much as Mississippi

Covid-19 safety measures cost Massachusetts residents $2,862 each in lost economic growth in early 2021 — nearly three times as much as it did for folks in Mississippi, with its light-touch lockdown, says a recent study.

Researchers from the Center of the American Experiment, a conservative think tank, estimated the economic cost of shuttered businesses and lost jobs due to each state’s lockdown measures from January to March, in 2021.

They then estimated the cost on each resident of those states — a Massachusetts family of four lost out on $11,448, while a comparable Mississippi household lost out on only $4,016, according to the 42-page document.

While not exhaustive, the study offers a perspective on how lockdowns hit economic growth, and therefore of the population at large, and raises questions about whether more stringent lockdowns saved enough lives to warrant the costs.

The Minnesota-based think tank estimated how much money residents of each state lost out on due to lockdown restrictions on the economy

‘Decisions to shut down large parts of the economy because of the pandemic were not free,’ said researchers from the Minnesota-based think tank.

‘States that employed less stringent Covid mitigation strategies fared much better when it came to Gross Domestic Product growth.’

The researchers focussed on their own state, Minnesota, where relatively stringent anti-Covid lockdown measures took a 3.1 percent bite out of the economy and cost each resident some $1,866 in early 2021, said the study.

‘Public policy must be judged on its cost as well as its benefit,’ said the study.

‘With this research, we can now begin to answer the question of whether the costs of these policy responses — $7,464 for a family of four over the first year of the pandemic — were worth the benefits.’

The question over whether strict lockdowns were an effective pandemic strategy, or whether they caused too much economic pain, has been debated since Covid-19 swept the globe in early 2020. 

No single study has reached a definitive answer. 

The research comes as America has largely turned the page on the pandemic, as daily infections are dropping and people return to schools, offices and grocery stores, mostly without the masks that have been a feature of the pandemic.

The Minnesota-based think tank found that Hawaii’s economy took the biggest hit from lockdown measures, with a 4.2 percent drop in turnover in early 2021

A business center shuttered during the coronavirus pandemic. Whether lockdowns were an effective pandemic strategy, or whether they caused too much economic pain, has been debated since Covid-19 swept the globe in early 2020

More than 330 people die on average each day of Covid-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with the national death toll standing at more than 1.06 million.

The White House this month urged Americans to get the updated Covid-19 boosters by Halloween to have maximum protection against the coronavirus by Thanksgiving and the holidays, and warned of a ‘challenging’ virus season ahead.

The World Health Organization this week said Covid-19 remained a global emergency, nearly three years after it was first declared as one. 

The UN health agency calls for nations to remain vigilant and push their most vulnerable populations to get jabs.

A protest against strict Covid lockdowns in St. Paul, Minnesota, in April 2020. Lockdowns cost a typical family of four $7,464 in lost output, according to a recent study 

Manhattan, New York, was deserted on Black Friday, November 27th, 2020. The biggest retail and tourist day of the year was almost wholly dampened by coronavirus, shaving 3.5 percent off the state’s economy at one point, according to the study