Leftist leaders in the U.S. and around the world were in love with locking their citizens down. Remember “15 days to slow the spread”? How well did they work?
Lockdowns during the first COVID-19 wave in the spring of 2020 only reduced COVID-19 mortality by .2% in the U.S. and Europe, according to a Johns Hopkins University meta-analysis of several studies.
“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,” the researchers wrote. “In consequence, lockdown policies are ill-founded and should be rejected as a pandemic policy instrument.”
The researchers – Johns Hopkins University economics professor Steve Hanke, Lund University economics professor Lars Jonung, and special advisor at Copenhagen’s Center for Political Studies Jonas Herby – analyzed the effects of lockdown measures such as school shutdowns, business closures, and mask mandates on COVID-19 deaths.
“We find little to no evidence that mandated lockdowns in Europe and the United States had a noticeable effect on COVID-19 mortality rates,” the researchers wrote.
The researchers also examined shelter-in-place orders, finding that they reduced COVID-19 mortality by 2.9%.
The lockdowns and shelter in place orders were wonderful in destroying the economy, closing businesses, stopping people from getting the medical, dental health, and mental health support they needed. In fairness, I will say that you really have to think about the panic that citizens and government were experiencing, as Wuhan flu spread around the world. Think back to what was happening in late January and in February of 2020. Things were going south even before government started implementing restrictions. People were voluntarily staying home as much as possible.
Of course, many in government went way overboard
“[Shelter-in-place orders] may isolate an infected person at home with his/her family where he/she risks infecting family members with a higher viral load, causing more severe illness,” the researchers wrote.
“But often, lockdowns have limited peoples’ access to safe (outdoor) places such as beaches, parks, and zoos, or included outdoor mask mandates or strict outdoor gathering restrictions, pushing people to meet at less safe (indoor) places.”
Remember the guy who was paddleboarding off Malibu, not a soul anywhere near him, and arrested for being out during the lockdown? Again, in fairness, that was not the fault of Gavin Newsome, who actually released orders allowing being outdoors exercising, it was on the cops. How about the guy in Spain walking along the beach all alone, and the cops chased him? He got away. The British cops were going nuts early in the lockdowns. Even on people in their own yards. And Australian cops were going Brownshirt last year.
If stay at home orders were so great, why did so many politicians blow them off themselves? Why were they blown off for the BLM/Antifa protests/riots?
Read: How Much Did Lockdowns Contribute To Saving People From Chinese Coronavirus? »