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Study: No 'additional benefit' to lockdowns amid COVID-19 pandemic

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A new study examining responses worldwide to the COVID-19 virus found that mandatory lockdown orders failed to provide significantly more benefits toward stemming the spread of the virus than voluntary measures, such as wearing masks and social distancing.
The study, which was peer-reviewed, was conducted by researchers at Stanford University and published in the European Journal of Clinical Investigation. The study compared cases in England, France, Germany, Iran, Italy, Netherlands, Spain and the U.S.
All of those countries employed mandatory lockdown orders and business closures, compared to other countries that instituted less severe, voluntary responses, such as South Korea and Sweden.
"We do not question the role of all public health interventions, or of coordinated communications about the epidemic, but we fail to find an additional benefit of stay-at-home orders and business closures," the researchers said. "The data cannot fully exclude …