Categories for Lockdowns and Restrictions
Was Lockdown Illegal?
Was lockdown illegal? While the High Court in London rejected Dolan’s case against the Government, lockdown opponents have won important victories in a number of countries, including France, Germany and Spain.
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New Paper Claims Lockdowns Do Not Cause More Health Harms Than They Prevent, but It Misses the Big Picture
A new paper claims that lockdowns do not cause more health harms than they prevent. But the harmful long-term effects of lockdown are yet to be quantified, so the authors have little basis for their conclusion.
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A Response to Scott Alexander on Lockdowns
The prolific blogger Scott Alexander has written a long post about lockdowns. He claims that "Sweden comes out looking very bad". Yet Sweden saw age-adjusted excess mortality up to week 51 of just 1.7%.
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Reductions in Quality of Life Have Vastly Outweighed COVID-19 Deaths, Say Researchers
Two economists have estimated that the world lost 48 million life-years due to people dying from COVID in 2020. "Every year", they note, "at least twice as many life years are lost due to children dying of diarrhea."
Read moreIf You’re not one of the few Experts, Then You’re one of the many Functionaries
by Sinéad Murphy In another instalment of the Covid assault on the vulnerable, my little autistic boy has been sent...
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Education Charity Finds that School Closures Hampered Students’ Learning
According to The Education Endowment Foundation, research on the impact of school closures on students’ learning "shows a consistent pattern". Students have made "less academic progress" than in previous years.
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Night Curfew May Have Increased the Spread of COVID-19 in Greece
Many countries have imposed night curfews in an attempt to reduce the spread of COVID-19. How successful have these measures been? According to a recent study, they may have actually increased transmission.
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Keeping Schools Open Had Only a Minor Impact on the Spread of COVID-19 in Sweden
A recent study found that keeping schools open had only a minor impact on the spread of COVID-19 in Sweden. The results suggest that "school closure is not an effective way to contain SARS-CoV-2".
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Lockdowns Had a Large Negative Impact on Economic Activity in Chile
Researchers examined the impact of localised lockdowns in Chile. They found that that a three-to-four month lockdown would reduce economic activity by roughly the same amount as one year of the 2009 Great Recession.
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Sweden’s Mortality Rate Last Year Was Lower Than in 2015
Last year, the UK's age-standardised mortality rate returned to the level of 2008. People claim it would have risen far more in the absence of lockdowns. Yet Sweden's rate only returned to the level of 2015.
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