These are the CDC’s own numbers, I repeat, so you and I can’t be accused of using obscure sources, or whatever other excuse the crazies normally use.

The results: completely random. If you can see a pattern here between lockdown stringency and health results, please show it to me, because I sure don’t see it (if the chart is too small to read, click on it and a larger version, or at least one you can maximize, will appear):

And yet there it is at number four.

(I would also adjust this chart for obesity levels, because I think we’d get a clearer picture still.)

Iowa, the “state that doesn’t care if you live or die,” in the words of The Atlantic, is all the way down at 27.

And of course the major story is Florida, at 36!

California, the land of bizarre, irrational, and endless restrictions, is at 39 — a trivial difference from Florida, and in any case Florida’s all-cause mortality figures turned out better than California’s.

Remember when people were screaming at Florida for defying all the recommendations? If you had asked them where they expected Florida to wind up when all was said and done, precisely zero of them would have said #36. It would have been at least top five, if not number one.

In other words, the crazies were wrong, period, and we win. All the destruction and disruption was for nothing.

Now, a teaser for the next episode of the Tom Woods Show, #2339, with the brilliant Stephen Wolfram on the subject of AI.

Wolfram earned a Ph.D. in theoretical physics from the California Institute of Technology by the age of 20, and the following year he became the youngest recipient ever of the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship. His groundbreaking computational tool Mathematica was launched in 1988 and has become a cornerstone for researchers and innovators worldwide.

His groundbreaking 2002 work A New Kind of Science inspired new avenues of research and influenced fields like artificial intelligence, network theory, and computational modeling. Wolfram also created Wolfram Alpha, and the Wolfram Language, whose significance lay in their ability to handle not only basic calculations but also more advanced tasks. They can deal with complex mathematical equations, perform statistical analyses, generate visualizations, and even tackle natural language understanding. They provide accessible and user-friendly interfaces for working with complex data and computations, making it easier for people without extensive programming or mathematical knowledge to explore and solve problems.

Moreover, Wolfram has just written a book on ChatGPT and how it works — the icing on the cake for why he is such an important guest to discuss AI and its implications.

This episode will be released late tonight. Not yet listening to the Tom Woods Show as part of your daily commute? For shame: https://www.tomwoods.com/episodes

Tom Woods