Government-forced lockdowns failed to significantly reduce mortality rates, according to a new Johns Hopkins University study of the effects lockdowns had on saving lives during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The study was conducted by Jonas Herby, Lars Jonung, and Steve H. Hanke, and was published in the academic journal, Studies in Applied Economics.
The authors said the study was “designed to determine whether there is empirical evidence to support the belief that ‘lockdowns’ reduce COVID-19 mortality.” The researchers defined lockdowns “as the imposition of at least one compulsory, non-pharmaceutical intervention (NPI).”
NPIs, they explained, “are any government mandate that directly restricts peoples’ possibilities, such as policies that limit internal movement, close schools and businesses, and ban international travel.”
Here are the main takeaways from the report:
Overall, we conclude that lockdowns are not an effective way of reducing mortality rates during a pandemic, at least not during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our results are in line with the World Health Organization Writing Group (2006), who state, “Reports from the 1918 influenza pandemic indicate that social-distancing measures did not stop or appear to dramatically reduce transmission […]”
Johns Hopkins University report on Covid-19 mortality
The authors also highlighted what they view as the damaging effects of lockdowns:
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.
Johns Hopkins University report on Covid-19 mortality
The study confirms what many who were censored on social media have been claiming for two years: lockdowns are not effective and are a violation of our constitutional rights.
The government-imposed lockdowns caused massive unemployment and immeasurable damage, and according to the authors of the study, were counterproductive, and discouraged people from going outdoors more where the virus does not transmit as easily.