(LifeSiteNews) – A June study found that lockdowns increase the mortality rate.
The study, done by researchers from both the non-partisan RAND Corporation and the University of Southern California, compared the number of non-coronavirus deaths registered before the COVID-19 lockdowns to that of non-coronavirus deaths registered during the lockdowns.
“We find that following the implementation of Shelter-in-Place (SIP) policies, excess mortality increases,” the researchers wrote. The researchers used SIP as a blanket term to refer to lockdowns, stay-at-home orders, and other similar draconian mandates.
The researchers analyzed the statistics from 43 countries and most American states. Some of the countries and states had jumped into lockdowns immediately. Others waited for some time before the lockdowns were mandated. In both of these pro-lockdown approaches, however, the pattern was the same: there was an increase in non-COVID or excess deaths.
The isolation resulting from the lockdowns, the study suggested, may have led to “several important unintended consequences” such as unemployment, increased stress and anxiety, substance abuse, suicides, increased child abuse and domestic violence, and those needing medical attention (such as cancer screenings) not being able to access it due to hospital restrictions.
Furthermore, the research noted that some countries that “implemented SIP policies experienced a decline in excess mortality prior to implementation.” These countries had registered declining excess deaths before the pandemic. After lockdowns, the recorded excess deaths increased. Islands like the state of Hawaii were the only exception.
Another important aspect of the research included a look into whether or not it made a difference if a country or American state jumped into lockdowns right away or waited. The researchers “failed to find that countries or U.S. states that implemented SIP policies earlier, and in which SIP policies had longer to operate, had lower excess deaths than countries/U.S. states that were slower to implement SIP policies.”
The conclusion is that lockdowns have resulted in an increase in deaths from causes other than the coronavirus across the United States and in 43 countries including Canada, countries in Europe, Israel, and Scandinavia.
This study is not the first to raise concerns about the harmful effects of lockdowns.
Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a Stanford University Medical School epidemiologist and public health expert, explained in a recent interview that, in his professional opinion, lockdowns have been the cause of more deaths than lives saved.
“I say the lockdowns were the single biggest mistake in public health history. I still believe that. I don’t see how anyone can look at lockdown and say there was successful policy,” Dr. Jay Bhattacharya said.
The American Institute for Economic Research (AIER), in an article describing the negative effects of lockdowns, provides a list of 31 studies including technical reports, peer-reviewed research, and scientific manuscripts that all show “that lockdowns have been an abject failure, do not work to prevent viral spread and in fact cause great harm.”
The Great Barrington Declaration, now with over 850,000 signatures, lists a number of negative consequences to lockdowns that cumulatively outweigh their effectiveness. The Declaration, developed by medical scientists and epidemiologists, states that “those who are not vulnerable should immediately be allowed to resume life as normal. Simple hygiene measures, such as hand washing and staying home when sick should be practiced by everyone to reduce the herd immunity threshold.”
The Declaration also calls for in-person learning in both schools and post-secondary institutes, sports to be resumed, businesses opened, and the arts reactivated.
“People who are more at risk may participate if they wish, while society as a whole enjoys the protection conferred upon the vulnerable by those who have built up herd immunity,” it says.