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New Johns Hopkins Study: “Lockdowns Have Had Little To No Public Health Effects” And “Imposed Enormous Economic and Social Costs”

“Lockdown policies are ill-founded and should be rejected as a pandemic policy instrument”

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A new study out of the renowned Johns Hopkins University has concluded that global lockdowns have had a much more detrimental impact on society than they have produced any benefit, with researchers urging that they “are ill-founded and should be rejected as a pandemic policy instrument.”

The study was authored by Jonas Herby, special advisor at Center for Political Studies in Copenhagen, Denmark; Lars Jonung, professor emeritus in economics at Lund University, Sweden; and Steve H. Hanke, a Professor of Applied Economics and Founder & Co-Director of The Johns Hopkins Institute for Applied Economics, Global Health, and the Study of Business Enterprise.

The authors wrote that “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 focus of the study, according to the authors was to “determine whether there is empirical evidence to support the belief that ‘lockdowns’ reduce COVID-19 mortality.”

The researchers defined lockdowns as “any government mandate that directly restrict peoples’ possibilities, such as policies that limit internal movement, close schools and businesses, and ban international travel.”

The researchers further noted that “To answer our question, we focused on studies that examine the actual impact of lockdowns on COVID-19 mortality rates based on registered cross-sectional mortality data and a counterfactual difference in-difference approach.”

In other words, did lockdowns reduce COVID deaths?

The conclusion is no.

“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,” the study notes.

It adds “shelter-in-placeorders (SIPOs) were also ineffective, only reducing COVID-19 mortality by 2.9% on average,” further noting “Specific non-pharmaceutical intervention (NPI) studies also find no broad-based evidence of noticeable effects on COVID-19 mortality.”

In other words, lockdowns don’t do anything to save people from COVID.

The authors concluded, “our meta-analysis fails to confirm that lockdowns have had a large, significant effect on mortality rates.”

In a further analysis of “lockdown vs. no lockdown, facemasks, closing non-essential businesses, border closures, school closures, and limiting gatherings,” the study also found “no broad-based evidence of noticeable effects on COVID-19 mortality.”

The findings bolster a host of previous scientific findings that all conclude lockdowns are ineffective instruments of virus control, and have actually caused more damage to people’s health and well being.

Stanford University professor of medicine Jay Bhattacharya noted last year that in years to come lockdowns will be looked back upon as the most catastrophically harmful policy in “all of history”.

The epidemiologist added “Every single poor person on the face of the earth has faced some harm, sometimes catastrophic harm, from this lockdown policy,” adding that “We will be counting the catastrophic health and psychological harms, imposed on nearly every poor person on the face of the earth, for a generation.”

A peer reviewed study by Stanford researchers found that mandatory lockdowns do not provide more benefits to stopping the spread of COVID-19 than voluntary measures such as social distancing.

The researchers found “no clear, significant beneficial effect of [more restrictive measures] on case growth in any country.”

The effects of lockdown have been devastating, with leading cancer charities in the UK warning that there is a crisis underway with huge numbers of people not receiving referrals or treatment because they’ve been told to stay at home and not to burden the National Health Service.

According to Professor Karol Sikora, an NHS consultant oncologist, there could be 50,000 excess deaths from cancer as a result of routine screenings being suspended during the lockdown in the UK.

Professor Richard Sullivan also warned that there will be more excess cancer deaths in the UK than total coronavirus deaths due to people’s access to screenings and treatment being restricted as a result of the lockdown.

His comments were echoed by Peter Nilsson, a Swedish professor of internal medicine and epidemiology at Lund University, who said, “It’s so important to understand that the deaths of COVID-19 will be far less than the deaths caused by societal lockdown when the economy is ruined.”

A major study by German scientists at Munich University also found that lockdowns had no effect on reducing the country’s coronavirus infection rate.

“Statisticians at Munich University found “no direct connection” between the German lockdown and falling infection rates in the country,” reported the Telegraph.

As we also previously reported, Academics from Duke, Harvard, and Johns Hopkins have concluded that there could be around a million excess deaths over the next two decades as a result of lockdowns.

The World Health Organization’s Regional Director for Europe Hans Kluge also warned governments should stop enforcing lockdowns, unless as a “last resort,” because the impact on other areas of health and mental well-being is more damaging.

Kluge’s warning matched that of the WHO’s special envoy on COVID-19, Dr David Nabarro, who told the Spectator in an interview that world leaders should stop imposing lockdowns as a reflex reaction because they are making “poor people an awful lot poorer.”

The warnings resonate with numerous other experts who have desperately tried to warn governments that lockdowns will end up killing more people than the virus itself, but have been largely ignored.

Germany’s Minister of Economic Cooperation and Development, Gerd Muller, warned that COVID-19 lockdowns will result in “one of the biggest” hunger and poverty crises in history.

“We expect an additional 400,000 deaths from malaria and HIV this year on the African continent alone,” Muller said, adding that “half a million more will die from tuberculosis.”

Muller’s comments arrived months after a leaked study from inside the German Ministry of the Interior revealed that the impact of the country’s lockdown could end up killing more people than the coronavirus due to victims of other serious illnesses not receiving treatment.

Another study found that lockdowns will conservatively “destroy at least seven times more years of human life” than they save.

A Guardian analysis has found that there have been thousands of excess deaths of people at home in the UK due to the lockdown.

Government data showed that England’s lockdown caused an extra 1 million people to become addicted to alcohol since the start of the pandemic.

Figures released by the the Office of National Statistics (ONS) revealed that there were 8,974 deaths “from alcohol-specific causes” in 2020, an 18.6% increase compared with 2019.

Experts in the fields of health, academia and charity have warned that the lockdown in the UK is creating a runaway pandemic of anxiety and depression. Paul Farmer, chief executive of the mental health charity Mind said “It’s no understatement to say that the nation is facing a mental health pandemic.” Since the lockdowns, hospitals have reported an explosion in suicides and intentional injury.

Infectious diseases expert and University of Edinburgh professor Mark Woolhouse acknowledged that the decision to lockdown the UK was a “crude measure” that was enacted because “we couldn’t think of anything better to do.”

Woolhouse said the lockdown was a “panic measure” and a “monumental mistake on a global scale,” adding “I believe the harm lockdown is doing to our education, health care access, and broader aspects of our economy and society will turn out to be at least as great as the harm done by COVID-19.”

Another infectious diseases expert Professor Steven Riley warned that current research “certainly doesn’t support the conclusion that lockdown is working.”

As we further previously highlighted, a data analyst consortium in South Africa found that the economic consequences of the country’s lockdown will lead to 29 times more people dying than the coronavirus itself.

Experts have also warned that there will be 1.4 million deaths globally from untreated TB infections due to lockdowns.

In addition, a study published in The Lancet that notes “physical distancing, school closures, trade restrictions, and country lockdowns” are worsening global child malnutrition.

Thousands of doctors and scientists are also on record as opposing lockdown measures, warning that they will cause more death than the coronavirus itself.

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    Coronavirus

    Maryland School Implements New Mask Mandate

    As Biden masks up in front of the press

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    Steve Watson

    Aaron Schwartz/NurPhoto via Getty Images

    An elementary school in Maryland has reinstated mandatory mask requirements, as Joe Biden appeared in front of the press wearing a face covering Tuesday.

    Rosemary Hills Elementary School in Silver Spring, a wealthy DC suburb, has brought back the mask mandate for students and staff, and added that the coverings should be N95 masks.

    The school sent out a letter informing parents they have taken the decision after just THREE students tested positive for COVID.

    “Additional KN95 masks have been distributed and students and staff in identified classes or activities will be required to mask while in school for the next 10 days, except while eating or drinking. Masks will become options again following the 10-day period,” the letter states.

    We’ve heard that one before.

    “At-home rapid test kids will be sent home and made available for students,” Principal Irwin Kennedy further notes, adding that CDC guidance decrees that testing should be done “5 days after an exposure (starting day 6)” or at such time as symptoms occur.

    “We will continue to reinforce good hand washing and follow cleaning and disinfection procedures,” the letter further states.

    The move comes as Joe Biden donned a face diaper as he arrived at a White House gathering, before removing it altogether.

    The White House says Biden will wear the mask after his multiple time vaxxed and boosted wife contracted COVID again.

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    Trump Lockdown Tyrant Does 180, Says No New Mask Mandates

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    Zero Hedge

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    When COVID-19 broker out, Dr. Deborah Birx, a former military AIDS researcher with no training, experience, or publications in epidemiology or public health policy, found herself leading a White House Task Force which would play a seminal role in dictating how the country locked down for the pandemic.

    In March of 2020, Birx and Dr. Anthony Fauci were grinning like Cheshire Cats with Duper’s Delight as they laid out an unprecedented lockdown and masking strategy which Birx later admitted they pulled out of their asses.

    Now that we’re revisiting mask mandates over the latest Covid-19 surge, Birx and Fauci are seemingly on different sides of the debate.

    We don’t need to mandate,” Birx told Newsmax on Saturday, in response to reports that an increasing number of hospitals and businesses are now requiring masks again.

    We need to actually empower people with the information that they need for themselves and their families because every family is different,” she continued. “And by the way, outside is safe, and playgrounds are safe.”

    Meanwhile Fauci – the guy who was funding risky bat coronavirus research in Wuhan, China and was then put in charge of the Coronavirus response in which he had scientists scramble to create and bolster propaganda denying a lab leak – went on CNN to push for mask mandates, claiming “there have been many studies indicate the benefit of wearing masks.”

    Yet, Anchor Michael Smerconish brought up the Cochrane review of masks, one of umpteen studies that have all found that the face coverings do little to nothing against COVID transmission (via Summit News).

    “When you’re talking about the effect on the epidemic or the pandemic as a whole, the data are less strong,” Fauci said, sqirming. “There are other studies, Michael, that show at an individual level, for individuals they might be protective.”

    Sure Tony…

    This post was originally published at Zero Hedge

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    Video: Fauci Squirms As CNN Anchor Confronts Him With Data Showing Masks Don’t Work

    “There are other studies”

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    Steve Watson

    Screenshot

    Anthony Fauci refused to back away from the recommendation of face masks Saturday as CNN (of all networks) confronted him with a study showing that they have no effect on preventing the spread of COVID.

    After Fauci claimed “there have been many studies indicate the benefit of wearing masks,” Anchor Michael Smerconish brought up the Cochrane review of masks, one of umpteen studies that have all found that the face coverings do little to nothing against COVID transmission.

    “When you’re talking about the effect on the epidemic or the pandemic as a whole, the data are less strong,” Fauci squirmingly admitted, but then went on to suggest people should still wear them anyway.

    “There are other studies, Michael, that show at an individual level, for individuals they might be protective,” Fauci claimed.

    Senator Rand Paul blasted Fauci for spreading “more subterfuge”:

    Others chimed in:

    Elsewhere during the interview Fauci said he hopes people will comply with wearing masks again, while stating “we’re not talking there’s forcing anybody to do anything.”

    He continued, “We’re not talking about mandates or forcing anybody but when you have a situation where the volume of cases in society gets to a reasonably high level, particularly the vulnerable, those who are elderly, and those with underlying conditions are going to be more susceptible and vulnerable if they do get infected to get severe disease leading to hospitalization.”

    “I would hope that if in fact we get to the point where the volume of cases is such an organization’s like the CDC recommend, CDC doesn’t mandate anything, I mean, recommends that people wear masks, I would hope that they abide by the recommendation and take into account the risk to themselves and to their families,” Fauci further stated.

    He continued, “People keep thinking that the federal government is going to mandate that you wear a mask, that’s not going to happen,” he said. “But there may be individual institutions, organizations that are going to say, if you want to come to work, you’ve got to wear a mask.”

    Here is the full interview:

    As we have highlighted, there is a creeping attempt to bring back masking and COVID restrictions despite no large bounce in cases and the fact that they just don’t work.

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