According to a meta-analysis conducted by three researchers, lockdown policies during the pandemic brought economic and social hardships – but very little public health benefits.
Clearly, after two years of unpopular, restrictive measures, people around the world have had enough. Many countries are opening up and easing measures aimed to fight COVID-19. Britain, France, Ireland, the Netherlands and several Nordic countries – most recently, Denmark – have taken steps to end or ease their COVID-19 restrictions. Last week, England ended almost all domestic restrictions: Masks aren’t required in public and vaccine passes are no longer needed to get into events or other public venues.
Then there’s the miles-long convoy of truckers in Canada protesting Justin Trudeau’s vaccine mandate for cross-border truck drivers.
Now comes a study released on Monday by Johns Hopkins University that clearly states lockdowns imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic “have had little to no public health effects” – but instead were “ill-founded” and imposed “enormous economic and social costs” in those places where lockdowns were adopted.
The 62-page study was authored by three researchers (one from Denmark, one from Sweden, and one from the U.S.) with noted economic expertise. Following are excerpts from their analysis of 24 studies separated into three groups: lockdown studies, shelter-in-place orders (SIPO) studies, and non-pharmaceutical intervention (NPI) studies (emphasis ours):
“The use of lockdowns is a unique feature of the COVID-19 pandemic. Lockdowns have not been used to such a large extent during any of the pandemics of the past century. However, lockdowns during the initial phase of the COVID-19 pandemic have had devastating effects. They have contributed to reducing economic activity, raising unemployment, reducing schooling, causing political unrest, contributing to domestic violence, and undermining liberal democracy. These costs to society must be compared to the benefits of lockdowns, which our meta-analysis has shown are marginal at best. Such a standard benefit-cost calculation leads to a strong conclusion: lockdowns should be rejected out of hand as a pandemic policy instrument.”
“An analysis of each of these three groups support the conclusion that lockdowns have had little to no effect on COVID-19 mortality. More specifically, stringency index studies find that lockdowns in Europe and the United States only reduced COVID-19 mortality by 0.2% on average. Shelter-in-place orders (SIPOs) were also ineffective, only reducing COVID-19 mortality by 2.9% on average. Specific non-pharmaceutical intervention (NPI) studies also find no broad-based evidence of noticeable effects on COVID-19 mortality.
“While this meta-analysis concludes that lockdowns have had little to no public health effects, they have imposed enormous economic and social costs where they have been adopted. In consequence, lockdown policies are ill-founded and should be rejected as a pandemic policy instrument.”
An earlier look at Sweden
The lead researcher – Steve H. Hanke – is a professor of applied economics at Johns Hopkins University, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, and a contributor for National Review. One year ago, he penned an article addressing Sweden’s “light-touch” approach to using lockdowns, describing it as “a relatively laissez-faire” approach to addressing the virus, “which has kept businesses open, left domestic travel unconstrained, and allowed healthy citizens to continue living their daily lives as they see fit.”
Sweden’s approach, he wrote, “appears to be the one most consistent with science – and its benefits have allowed Sweden to avoid many of the costs associated with hard lockdowns.”
Those benefits?
“By doing its best to leave schools open, Sweden has at least partially preserved the educational integrity of its youth. By avoiding mandatory stay-at-home orders, it has safeguarded its citizens’ mental health. By keeping businesses open, Sweden has suffered fewer economic losses than most of its European peers.”
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Copyright American Family News. Reprinted with permission.
I can understand that people who weren’t virologists wouldn’t know what to do and would take Fauci’s word for what to do at first.
But it didn’t stop in the 2nd year. Anthony Fauci should be in prison along with the Biden administration and the Chinese.
They should face MORE than just mere prison time, for what they have done to the world..
All that Fauci and the Lockdown basement dwelling Democrat Morlocks accomplished was killing off more people through COVID stuffed Nursing homes and suicides brought on by job and small business losses, trading for those who would have normally died commuting to work and back in car accidents. Their self-created decimating middle-class agenda of Equity redistribution of American wealth from the productive to the consuming did take a “Great Leap forward” more so than even Mao’s great leap, in leveling the productive Self-governing sections of America down to the basement of the social parasite bottom feeders, who feed upon the American exceptional and productive, who thanks to the Democrats, now will sooner have fewer to feed upon, making it sooner when they are forced to feed upon themselves who thanks to woke equity monsters will be the only ones left aiding in America’s Great Leap into the frog’s boiling pot, while it is China and her interests who make the real Great leap forward after turning up the American burners of a COVID pandemic whose recipe was created and concocted in China.
Descent was not allowed as the MSM and Big Tech was in collusion with the CDC and Fauci, so the crackdown on citizens (Gestapo / Stasi tactics) were employed. The criminal Fauci destroyed American lives and businesses (Gain of function research and shutting down the economy). People with serious illnesses (other than covid) like cancer, diabetes and heart disease could not be treated and many of those people died or will die. Fauci the traitor should be fired and then tried and convicted for crimes against humanity. I think we need Nuremburg II trials (Fauci, the CDC, Dr. Birx, Big Tech and the MSM should all be tried and convicted).
I’d add in the FBI and Dept of Injustice, into the mix, since they HELPED ENFORCE what big tech and the rest, were pushing…
More so the Department of Injustice than the FBI . The Department of Justice is to America what the Democrat run city D.A’s are to their inner cities, but the FBI agents who do the arresting of political national criminals are to America what the Democrat run City Cops are to their perpetrators. Why arrest anyone when the political “Get out of Jail Free” cards have already been issued even before the crime is committed. Maybe they should start arresting the D.A.s and DOJ turncoats first, then the rest will fall in place. Refusing to enforce the law is every bit as criminal as disobeying the law, just more hidden and sinister.
IF the FBI weren’t doing their jobs, the Dept of injustice, wouldn’t be able to enforce their dictates..