Ex-NY Times Reporter Scared More About Economy Than Virus

A former reporter at The New York Times believes officials around the country acted too hastily in shutting down businesses around the United States in response to the coronavirus, according to Fox News.

Alex Berenson says government officials around the country relied heavily on a flawed model from the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME). Early during the pandemic, it estimated coronavirus would be responsible for more than 90,000 deaths by August.

Based on that model's prediction, 41 governors effectively shut down most economic activity in their states to prevent the spread of coronavirus. Berenson suggests these extended stay-at-home orders have caused great damage to the nation's economy.

Berenson tweeted this week:

"In February I was worried about the virus. By mid-March I was more scared about the economy. But now I'm starting to get genuinely nervous. This isn't complicated. The models don't work. The hospitals are empty. WHY ARE WE STILL TALKING ABOUT INDEFINITE LOCKDOWNS?"

Outside of New York, which has been the hardest hit by coronavirus, no other hospital systems around the country have seen a "health system crisis," Berenson claimed.

And the numbers from that model were recently revised to about 60,000 deaths. 

"This is true in Florida where the lockdown was late, this is true in southern California where the lockdown was early, it's true in Oklahoma where there is no statewide lockdown," Berenson told Fox News. "There doesn't seem to be any correlation between the lockdown and whether or not the epidemic has spread wide and fast."

Berenson challenged a model from Imperial College in London, which projected the U.K. would have 500,000 deaths from coronavirus. The number of people killed will be more like 20,000.

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