On April 29, the Atlantic accused Georgia of practising human sacrifice by beginning to reopen (after locking down on March 19).
A month and a half later, Georgia's Covid-19 death pattern looks pretty much like it did before it re-opened. Could it have done better if it had stayed locked down? Possibly; we don't really know either way. But that the month-and-a-half after re-opening doesn't look much different than the month-and-a-half after closing doesn't provide a strong argument for closing down.
It certainly doesn't justify a headline screaming about human sacrifice. And while writers don't choose headlines, and Atlantic staff writer Amanda Mull didn't use the words human sacrifice in the article, her writing strongly indicates that she was confident re-opening was a horrible mistake. But intellectual humility doesn't generate clicks and ad revenue, I suspect. Which is why you should always be skeptical of anything published in popular media.