Horowitz: Philippines had the harshest lockdown and most mask wearing. It didn’t work.

Nowhere is the circuitous insanity and national masochism of lockdown policies more evident than in the Philippines. This nation of over 100 million holds the distinction of having undergone the longest and most severe lockdown. They also have the highest rate of mask wearing in the world, according to a recent survey. In other words, they've done everything the propagators of corona panic porn every dreamt of. Yet…

Cases are surging because you can't run or hide from a respiratory virus.

Their answer? A new lockdown – all the while missing the irony that the first series of totalitarian mandates didn't work. Now they have a weakened and destitute population to face the virus, while countries like Sweden achieved de facto herd immunity from a position of strength.

Just how insane was the lockdown in the Philippines? Beginning as early as March 15, under the direction of President Rodrigo Duterte, anyone under 21 or over 60 was not allowed out of his home, only one family member could go out for food and medicine, and there was an across-the-board curfew from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. President Duterte threatened to have violators shot.

Tens of thousands of people in America likely died as a result of the lockdown – could you imagine how many hundreds of thousands died from lack of food and medical care in a poor country from such a severe policy of house arrest? This country has been suffering from a hunger crisis for years. The cruel irony is that only 2,000 people have died of COVID-19 in the country of 100 million. Like most Asian countries, they probably have a high degree of cross-immunity from coronavirus colds.

Aside from the insane lockdown, the Philippines holds the distinction of having the highest degree of mask compliance. After all, people don't want to get shot.

So, after destroying their country, one would think they at least “got rid" of the virus, right?

Wrong! The virus does what it does and was always bound to come to southern latitude countries later, as we are seeing in places like Israel and Hawaii. The national lockdown was in place until June 1 and many local places still had lockdowns until July. Now, the corrupt and evil government has a brilliant idea: a new lockdown.

Hey, how about they just shoot everyone dead and then they don't have to worry about the virus? That seems to sum up the strategy they have pursued. It's like curing a migraine by chopping off someone's head but still finding some way to not get rid of the pain. Manilla and four surrounding provinces are under full house arrest for two weeks.

A quarantine has been imposed in a compound with confirmed cases of COVID-19 to prevent the further spread of the virus in Quezon City, Philippines. (Lisa Marie David | NurPhoto via Getty Images)

In a cruel irony, the country is now in such a weakened state, they will have an attenuated immune system and a medical system flooded with other ailments to now contend with the virus. How prescient was the warning from D.A. Henderson, the former dean of Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, who is widely credited with helping to eradicate smallpox, when he noted how continuing daily lives for most people as normal is the best way to endure through an epidemic.

“Experience has shown that communities faced with epidemics or other adverse events respond best and with the least anxiety when the normal social functioning of the community is least disrupted," wrote Henderson in a paper co-authored by other Hopkins researchers in 2006.

On Tuesday, AP wrote an op-ed dressed up as a news story asserting wrongly that “many Americans have resisted wearing masks and social distancing," which resulted in more viral spread.

“Public health experts say the problem has been compounded by confusing and inconsistent guidance from politicians and a patchwork quilt of approaches to containing the scourge by county, state and federal governments," added AP.

Well, maybe they ought to take a look at the Philippines. There was no confusion or inconsistency there and certainly no lack of obedience. Just pure tyranny. When will we finally learn that when you trade liberty for security, you achieve neither?