When the pandemic hit, one of the first measures that governments implemented were lockdowns. Governments told people to stay at home. Schools and unnecessary businesses were closed. In Australia, governments used helicopters with searchlights to make sure people weren’t breaking curfews. In other places, governments would not even allow people to say goodbye to dying loved ones.

But with the pandemic and the political rhetoric dying down, experts are taking a second look at the lockdowns. Many are concluding they not only had a minimal effect in stopping the spread of COVID but actually caused more harm than good.

The Daily Mail recently interviewed an epidemiologist, Professor Mark Woolhouse from the University of Edinburgh, who believes the lockdown cure was worse than the disease:

One of them is Professor Mark Woolhouse, an epidemiologist at the University of Edinburgh, who has recently published a book, The Year The World Went Mad, about the UK’s pandemic policy failures.

Speaking this week on The Mail on Sunday’s Medical Minefield podcast, Prof Woolhouse said: ‘I think that lockdown will be viewed by history as a monumental mistake on a global scale, for a number of reasons.

‘The obvious one is the immense harm the lockdown, more than any other measure, did in terms of the economy, mental health and on the wellbeing of society. […] 

‘But many analyses suggest that lockdown itself didn’t have a huge impact on reducing the health burden. That was achieved in other ways.‘

READ: Why more and more experts say lockdown didn’t prevent people dying of Covid – and call it a ‘monumental mistake on a global scale’, writes JO MACFARLANE

RELATED: A Johns Hopkins study says ‘ill-founded’ COVID lockdowns did more harm than good

Even the mainstream media is starting to recognize the damage caused by the lockdowns:

New York Times (behind paywall): It’s ‘Alarming’: Children Are Severely Behind in Reading

BBC: Lockdown: ‘Children behind in speech and understanding’

READ: Impact of COVID-19 and lockdown on mental health of children and adolescents: A narrative review with recommendations