ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the scientific claims that drove the shutdown of a large part of the economy during the Covid-19 pandemic. Markets crashed, millions of individuals were discharged or furloughed for months from their jobs and trillions of dollars in public funds were expended to cushion the blows from government shutdown orders. The public was constantly admonished that they must “follow the science” by complying with those orders. As described in this chapter that science was so uncertain it was actually the lack of science that drove the shutdowns. The result was an economic and financial disaster. This chapter explains why a national inquest is needed to independently assess the science applied to justify the pandemic shutdown orders. Its findings should then be used to provide the basis for formulating a more informed and effective response to the next inevitable pandemic without unnecessarily crashing the economy and markets.
