Hoisted by our own petard

Is the response to coronavirus causing much more damage to health and wealth than the virus itself?  Heather MacDonald: "Compared to what? - Our misguided response to Covid-19"

The number of cases in most afflicted countries is paltry. As of today, 127 countries had reported some cases, but forty-eight of those countries had fewer than ten cases, according to Worldometer. At this point, more people have recovered from the virus than are still sick. But the damage to people’s livelihoods through the resulting economic contraction is real and widespread. Its health consequences will be more severe than those of the coronavirus, as Steve Malanga shows in City Journal. The people who can least afford to lose jobs will be the hardest hit by the assault on tourism. Small entrepreneurs, whether in manufacturing or the service sector, will struggle to stay afloat. Such unjustified, unpredicted economic havoc undermines government legitimacy.

Instapundit posts an email about how restaurants are barren, hurting the livelihoods of the wait staff, busboys, hosts, and cooks.  Panic has already erased trillions in the stock market for fewer deaths than a week in Chicago.