RIGHT SPEAK: COVID Pandemic Caused Whopping $18T in Economic Damage to US: Report; Masks are Key Tool Against COVID-19. Should They Be Banned for War Protesters, and other C-Virus related stories

COVID pandemic caused whopping $18T in economic damage to US: report:

A new report by the Heritage Foundation’s Nonpartisan Commission on China and COVID-19 found that the COVID pandemic caused $18 trillion in economic losses to the US and placed blame for the outbreak on the Chinese government.

FOX Business exclusively viewed an advance copy of the report, which estimated that as of December 2023, the pandemic’s total economic cost in the US topped $18 trillion after taking into account several ways in which the pandemic affected the economy.

That figure includes more than $8.6 trillion caused by excess deaths; more than $1.825 trillion in lost income; $6 trillion due to chronic conditions such as “long COVID”; and mental health losses of $1 trillion and educational losses of $435 billion pushed the total above $18 trillion.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has exacted a staggering toll on the United States, both in human lives and in economic terms. The total estimated cost of $18.007 trillion is a stark reminder of the profound impact this global health crisis has had on the nation,” the commission wrote. “By understanding and acknowledging these costs, we can lay the groundwork for holding accountable those whose negligence or overt actions exacerbated the pandemic’s severity.”

The report noted there were 1,476,457 excess deaths in the US from 2020 to 2022 during the height of the pandemic.

In terms of lost economic output, real gross domestic product in that period was 2.5% below what was projected in early 2020 before the pandemic began.

It added that the pandemic was “the most disruptive and costly event of the 21st century” and that the worldwide excess deaths from COVID were estimated to be 28 million, according to an analysis by The Economist.

Regarding the origins of COVID, the commission found that it “very likely stemmed from a research-related incident in Wuhan, China.”

“Although it remains theoretically possible that COVID-19 emerged via zoonosis in the wild or spillover in a wet market (spillover is a virus originating in animals before it passes to humans), there is no evidentiary basis for either of these hypotheses despite extensive testing over four years,” the commission wrote. --->READ MORE HERE

Masks are key tool against COVID-19. Should they be banned for war protesters?

The mask debate has taken an entirely new form in 2024.

Politicians in California, New York and North Carolina, who once championed masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19, are now looking to ban them following protests against the war in Gaza.

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators often wear the same type of medical masks used to prevent germs. In part, they're hoping to hide their identities from online campaigns that have cost them jobs or educational opportunities and even led to death threats. Many organizers have also incorporated masking to reduce the spread of respiratory illnesses and to make others – particularly those at greater risk of serious illness – feel welcome.

Officials allege some masked protesters have committed antisemitic hate crimes outside of synagogues, museums and on public transit. Face coverings have made it harder for police to identify suspects, both Democratic and Republican lawmakers argue.

But public health officials and people with health concerns argue that masks remain essential tools of self-protection.

Four years into the COVID-19 pandemic, there is an uptick in cases this summer, ahead of predictable surges in other respiratory illnesses in the coming winter months. Medical-grade masks, such as N95 or KN95 respirators, are an established tool to control COVID-19, in addition to flu and RSV.

Now, there are concerns about how far mask bans could go.

"Bans on the use of masks strongly inhibit one of the options that public health has to reduce the impact of pandemics in our population,” Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, told USA TODAY. “Politics, rather than a careful review of the evidence, has had a strong influence on the acceptability of using masks to combat pandemics.” --->READ MORE HERE