LETTER: Award for group that downplayed seriousness of pandemic 'disturbing'

At a time when we are facing daily reports of overcrowded hospitals, overworked health workers and full morgues, I find it not only ironic but rather disturbing that the Free Market Foundation has deemed it appropriate to bestow an award on Panda, a group of multidisciplinary professionals, “for making a credible case for freedom as an alternative to lockdown during the Covid-19 pandemic”. 

This is the group that has from the outset downplayed the seriousness of the coronavirus, and initially confidently predicted that SA’s deaths from Covid-19 would not come close to 10,000. Panda also promoted the findings of a now discredited US research paper that attempted to ascribe observed excess deaths to the impact of lockdown measures.

There is credible evidence that those cities and states in the US that reacted rapidly with stringent containment and lockdown measures in the face of the 1918 flu pandemic generally experienced lower mortality rates and stronger economic recovery than those that dragged their feet or believed in business as usual.

The analysis and interpretation of data should be tempered by common sense. The freedom to express contrary views should be protected, but such views should not be celebrated when they are patently not in the public interest.

Blignault Gouws

Waterkloof Ridge

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