BALTIMORE — A new study by researchers at Johns Hopkins University reveals COVID lockdowns may have prevented a small number of deaths caused by the virus.
The authors reviewed 24 separate studies and broke them into three groups: Lockdown Stringency Index Studies, Shelter-In-Place Order Studies, and Specific Non-Pharmaceutical Intervention Studies.
An analysis of each found "that lockdowns have had little to no effect on COVID-19 mortality."
The numbers suggest lockdowns in Europe and the United States reduced the COVID-19 mortality rate by only an average of 0.2%.
Shelter-In-Place orders didn't fare much better, as they only reduced deaths by an average of 2.9%.
Researchers did find that lockdown orders caused enormous economic and social costs wherever they were implemented.
The authors concluded that lockdown policies are "ill-founded" and suggested they be rejected in future pandemics.
The study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, was performed by Jonas Herby, Lars Jonung, and Steve H. Hanke.
On their website, Johns Hopkins says the views expressed in the report are those of the authors and not necessarily the university.
Below is the full report.