What to know about the study on lockdowns and COVID-19 deaths by economists

 https://www.politifact.com/article/2022/feb/07/what-know-about-study-lockdowns-and-covid-19-death/

Fox News and other outlets are touting a new study that looked at how early COVID-19 lockdowns impacted mortality of the disease. The stories come with bombshell headlines that say research conducted by Johns Hopkins University found that lockdowns barely reduced deaths.

A new paper by three economists affiliated with Johns Hopkins University found that COVID-19 lockdowns barely reduced deaths, but the paper has not been peer-reviewed and is considered a working paper. The university did not endorse the study.

Several experts have criticized the paper and point to issues such as the authors’ broad definition of lockdown, a limited focus on the first wave of the pandemic, a comparison of policies that look very different from country to country, and an exclusion of studies that look at the science of disease transmission.

Other research has found that lockdown measures have helped save millions of lives during the pandemic.