Absent a feasible zero-COVID strategy, which for most countries was never in the books due to their geographical situation, lockdowns have been found to have vi

Absent a feasible zero-COVID strategy, which for most countries was never in the books due to their geographical situation, lockdowns have been found to have virtually no impact on reducing the spread of COVID. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13571516.2021.1976051 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13571516.2021.19... https://sites.krieger.jhu.edu/iae/files/2022/01/A-Literature-Review-and-Meta-Analysis-of-the-Effects-of-Lockdowns-on-COVID-19-Mortality.pdf https://sites.krieger.jhu.edu/iae/files/2022/01/A-Literature... Lockdowns have devasted education: https://www.economist.com/international/2022/07/07/covid-learning-loss-has-been-a-global-disaster https://www.economist.com/international/2022/07/07/covid-lea... The cost to lifetime earnings is estimated to be $17 trillion: https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2021/12/06/learning-losses-from-covid-19-could-cost-this-generation-of-students-close-to-17-trillion-in-lifetime-earnings https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2021/12/06/l... Which will massively exacerbate poverty and all of its associated illnesses. The education losses have been worst for the poor: https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2022/05/remote-learning-likely-widened-racial-economic-achievement-gap/ https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2022/05/remote-learni... Social distancing and other COVID control measures, which became mandatory with lockdowns, have been associated with a surge in childhood obesity: https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7037a3.htm?s_cid=mm7037a3_w https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7037a3.htm?s_cid=mm... And a decline in children's IQ: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34401887/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34401887/ 97 million more people are estimated to be poverty due to the social reaction to COVID, the most drastic and disruptive of which were lockdowns: https://blogs.worldbank.org/opendata/updated-estimates-impact-covid-19-global-poverty-turning-corner-pandemic-2021 https://blogs.worldbank.org/opendata/updated-estimates-impac... It turns out following the lead of an authoritarian communist state on the COVID response, by totally abrogating civil liberties with community quarantines, i.e. lockdowns, wasn't a great idea. As for voluntary social distancing, it has been found to impose more measurable costs for 89% of the population than it reduces through mitigating risks of contracting COVID.