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Photo by Jonathan J. Castellon on Unsplash

By Phil Lawler, Catholic Culture, Nov. 20, 2020

Phil Lawler has been a Catholic journalist for more than 30 years. He has edited several Catholic magazines and written eight books. Founder of Catholic World News, he is the news director and lead analyst at CatholicCulture.org. See full bio.

“By staying home, we’re saving lives.” How often have you heard that logic during the last several months? Let’s take a closer look at it.

If you know or even suspect that you have a highly infectious and potentially deadly disease, then of course, you should stay home; if you’re out and about, you’re putting others at risk. But what if there’s no reason to suspect that you’re infected with the disease? What if 99% of the people who do catch the disease survive it—in most cases, without serious symptoms? In that case, when a productive citizen stays home, there’s a cost to society—a cost that can ultimately be measured in lives.

In The Price of Panic, three authors—Douglas Axe, William Brigg, and Jay Richards—try to put the Covid epidemic in perspective. The authors do not downplay the dangers of Covid. They simply weigh those dangers against the undoubted costs of the draconian measures with which public officials have responded. They contend: …

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