The former Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (Drug Czar) under late President George H.W. Bush had some pretty explosive things to say about how data models and the reaction to COVID-19 have affected Americans and the economy.
During a segment on Fox & Friends, William Bennett gave an explosive summary of the effects the “panic” reaction has had on the economy, suggesting that “[T]his was not, and is not a pandemic. But we do have panic and pandemonium as a result of the hype of this. And it's really unfortunate. Look at the facts.” [Emphasis added.]
“The [c]oronavirus outbreak [was] labeled a pandemic by [the] World Health Organization,” NBC News reported March 11.
Bennett summarized: “[I]f you look at those numbers, and see the comparable, we're going to have fewer fatalities from this than from the flu. For this, we scared the hell out of the American people, we lost 17 million jobs, we put a major dent in the economy, we closed down the schools — you heard Dr. Oz say we probably didn't have to do that — shut down the churches, and so on.” [Emphasis added.]
Bennett also called into question the accuracy modeling data taken from the University of Washington (UW): “The estimates now from the University of Washington, which is the model everybody's been going on — even though it’s been wrong most of the time, by a lot, overstating it — is now, they say 60,000 people will die; 61,000 is what we lost to the flu in 2017 and 2018 — the flu.” [Emphasis added.]
The Washington Post referred to UW’s model as “America’s most influential coronavirus model.”
Bennett wrote a commentary piece with Claremont Institute Senior Fellow Seth Leibsohn Apr. 6, headlined, “An Advantaged Disease, Indeed,” where they concluded:
“Did you know the chances of recovery from the coronavirus are about 98%—if you catch it? Did you know there are models showing 50% of the population may have already had it, never knew they had it, and recovered? Again, one would think this data would be widely available and reported. It isn’t,” [emphasis added].
