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Nobody is suggesting you should take health advice from an economist. Should we be taking economic advice from a health officer?

Maybe you should be listening to her if she was talking about the pandemic in March 2019! Haha. Why begrudge the poor economist? Couldn't you say the same about health professionals? Is there a relationship between economic growth and health outcomes?

But the figures you provide only talk to the number of people that have died from Covid in each country. They say very little about the effectiveness of the policy response for the reasons I have stated before. Working with data, you should be well aware of the whole correlation vs causation...

There is only one of us here trying to look at all the facts.

It could be the case for multiple reasons. One, it is popular with some parts of the electorate?

Wow, a pretty aggressive response here. I'll do my best to respond to the questions. 1. How do you define better? Is it simply number of deaths due to Covid? If that was the only metric, the optimal policy response would, at the beginning of the crisis, weld everyone's door shut and only let...

I didn't know about the record number of calls to Lifeline. That's quite sad. I suppose I consider the argument in the report as an alternative view as it seems almost as a reflex we lockdown to contain the outbreak. We report daily Covid numbers/hospitalisation/deaths but no other...

It is absolutely difficult to quantify what would have happened if you chose another path. Modelling is one way to provide an estimate. Comparing the results with similar countries is another. However, it is often a poor choice, because too many of the variables are different ie. different...

Perhaps you could answer your own questions by reading the report yourself??

I can see that vaccination is an important topic for you. What I posted can be thought about in this way... Holding Australia's vaccination policy constant, what is the most effective way manage outbreaks. The research in the link doesn't talk about whether lockdowns are sustainable, but...

It's an alternative view on whether broad lockdowns have proved to be 'successful'. It's an alternative view on whether the NSW Gov. was wrong to delay locking down Sydney from the current outbreak. It does not provide a view on vaccination.

An alternative view https://www.businessthink.unsw.edu.au/articles/covid-19-lockdowns-cost?mc_cid=b3bf486161&mc_eid=03bdb4a448

My original comment was that OWS was a boost and could not be completely discounted. I guess your comment, 'The US government has done sweet bugger all' says it all regarding how open your mind is on the evidence, and that's fine. Perhaps our different positions are on how we view development...

**If** this is true, then this is outright incompetence. Leaving an unsigned contract for weeks reeks of either pure laziness or an inability to manage an organization, and tells the player they are not an important member of the club. Given the massive hole that we are in as a club, these are...

I'm glad we can agree that the Government policy reduced the risks faced by Pfizer. However, I think I demonstrated in my simple example above how the guarantee of demand affects the development of the vaccine in the short run (to your second paragraph). Further while Pfizer did not receive...

Not really sure where you are going with that statement. Nobody has stated that Pfizer has taken on no risk. When Pfizer decision makers were deciding on the allocation of capital to the development of the Covid-19 vaccine they would have considered a number of risks, not limited to a) the...

The facts as I understand them is that Pfizer only needed to gain FDS approval, not that they got to market first. If you can show me where is says that Pfizer had to get to market first to receive the funding, then that of course materially increases their risk.

It is a boost because the guarantee came before Pfizer new their drug was so effective. The Government guarantee was not on the basis that they produce the worlds most effective vaccine first, but rather on the basis that they obtain FDA approval. It is a boost exactly for the reasons that you...

Having the Government guarantee demand for the product would have been a huge boost for Pfizer. I don’t think it is appropriate to completely discount that effect.

What evidence are you using for that statement? Over the last 10 years, the eventual premiers lost round 1 on 6 occasions. This is quite a strong statistic considering premiers usually win the majority of the games they play in the season.