Commentary A new study shows that COVID-19/CCP virus lockdowns hurt the economy, sharpen inequality, and disproportionately harm minorities and the poor. The study, authored by Dr. Paul Prentice and research intern Jim Royal, was published by the Independence Institute in Denver. (Disclosure: I’m an Independence Institute senior fellow. I had no connection with this project.) The title is “Unequal Opportunities, Unequal Outcomes: The COVID-19 Recession in Colorado.” Despite the name, the study’s findings extend far beyond Colorado. Prentice and Royal confirm what other researchers have found: Although some mandates stem the spread of the disease—such as those shutting places of mass assembly and requiring social distancing and masks—economic lockdowns do not. The authors display a chart (pdf) that illustrates the point. On the horizontal axis are the 50 states ranked by a “stringency index,” a system developed at Oxford University for measuring the severity of each state’s lockdown. On the …