Lockdown measures, such as closing schools, likely prolonged the epidemic by preventing the virus from naturally moving through low-risk populations and building herd immunity.
A recent study published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) found that the closing of schools in response to the novel coronavirus could actually increase overall deaths resulting from the disease.
Researchers from the University of Edinburgh reevaluated a model produced by the Imperial College London earlier this year that prompted the extensive government lockdown measures, including the closing of schools, implemented in the U.K.,
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school closures and isolation of younger people would increase the total number of deaths
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lockdowns .. prolong the epidemic” by preventing the virus from naturally moving through low-risk populations and building herd immunity which then serves to protect the vulnerable, including the “older age groups.”
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school closures lead to more deaths
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Schools and universities should be open for in-person teaching. Extracurricular activities, such as sports, should be resumed. Young low-risk adults should work normally, rather than from home. Restaurants and other businesses should open. Arts, music, sport and other cultural activities should resume. People who are more at risk may participate if they wish, while society as a whole enjoys the protection conferred upon the vulnerable by those who have built up herd immunity.”
Dr. Jay Bhattacharya of Stanford .. Denying herd immunity is like denying gravity. Gravity exists and herd immunity exists … The question isn’t about herd immunity really, the question is how do you safely get there. The focused (protection) strategy that we are proposing where you protect the vulnerable and let people live their lives will get us there more quickly with less loss of life and less damage to other aspects of public health that get ignored.”
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