(straining marriages, increasing child and spousal abuse, and further postponing marriage among young people), bankrupting vast numbers of business owners and workers living paycheck to paycheck, and increasing suicides?

The reason given is that we must lock down virtually all human social and economic activity in order to prevent millions of people from dying of the coronavirus and overwhelming hospitals.

But is it true? Was this lockdown necessary?

In order to answer these questions, we need to know how many people would have died from COVID-19 if we hadn't ruined the world's economic life.

The truth is we don't know. And the truth is we never knew.