Blog Considers Cost of Flattening the Curve

A recent blog post on The Incidental Economist highlights the economic costs of the current shutdown spurred by COVID-19.

The authors, University of Vermont’s Eline van den Broek-Altenburg and Adam Atherly, previously pegged the cost of the shutdown between $1 trillion – $4 trillion, but acknowledge that was a “gross underestimate.”

“Revisiting the issue, it is now clear that the cost per QALY gained from the shutdown will be outside the conventional range of acceptability even at the high end of deaths avoided,” they write. “How far outside the range the shutdown policy will ultimately prove to be is unknown.”

To read the full blog post, click here.