Columnist Neva Makgetla is usually astute about statistics, but she conflated results with causes in arriving at the conclusion that the ban on liquor sales produces a positive result in terms of limiting the spread of Covid (“Get the numbers straight, and it’s clear alcohol ban was beneficial (https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/opinion/columnists/2021-02-08-neva-makgetla-get-the-numbers-straight-and-its-clear-alcohol-ban-was-beneficial/)”, February 8).
Evidence from other countries where mobility was limited, for example the UK and US, but where alcohol sales were permitted, yielded an almost identical percentage decline in hospital admissions as in SA. It was thus the lockdown and curfew, with almost no social interaction and fewer cars on the road, that delivered the gains...
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