PETER BRUCE: Ban on alcohol sales fuelled by prejudice, not science
A report by academics has found no correlation between the prohibition and the drop in trauma cases at hospitals
However much the government’s absurd and ultimately useless coronavirus lockdown alcohol bans have cost, it has been briefly all worth it watching our sanctimonious anti-alcohol establishment explode with spit-flecked fury at the arrival of new research that very effectively challenges their conventional wisdom that alcohol bans kept hospitals going during the 19 weeks of bans the government has imposed so far.
Distell, one of SA’s biggest liquor producers, funded independent researchers Ian McGorian, a data analyst with Silverfox Consulting, and Mike Murray, associate professor in the School of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, to pin down the actual facts about alcohol and the lockdowns. Why assume the alcohol bans are what is working when there are simultaneous restrictions on movement (the curfews), gatherings and travel?..
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