COVID-19 Lockdowns Had High Health and Economic Costs: Swedish study

Imposing restrictive lockdown measures during the COVID-19 pandemic led to higher excess mortality in such nations while also damaging their economies, according to a recent Swedish study. Published in the Economic Affairs journal on Feb. 11, the study looked at the health and economic impacts of COVID-19 lockdowns in Sweden. It found that Sweden’s less restrictive COVID-19 policies led to lower excess mortality contrasted with many European nations that imposed stronger lockdown rules. Sweden also suffered a lower negative impact on GDP growth during the pandemic period. Researchers concluded that many policymakers made two key mistakes. “First, they introduced lockdowns that were too stringent and had negligible positive health effects despite the evidence available at the time pointing towards the limited benefits of such broad measures....