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A Project of The Annenberg Public Policy Center
SciCheck’s COVID-19/Vaccination Project

What We’ve Learned About So-Called ‘Lockdowns’ and the COVID-19 Pandemic

What We’ve Learned About So-Called ‘Lockdowns’ and the COVID-19 Pandemic

Plenty of peer-reviewed studies have found government restrictions early in the pandemic, such as business closures and physical distancing measures, reduced COVID-19 cases and/or mortality, compared with what would have happened without those measures. But conservative news outlets and commentators have seized on a much-criticized, unpublished working paper that concluded “lockdowns” had only a small impact on mortality as definitive evidence the restrictions don’t work.