COVID Restrictions Were Pointless, New Study Finds
COVID restrictions were a pointless, harmful, historic evil, costing the world billions, if not trillions of dollars, with zero impact whatsoever on the spread of an endemic respiratory virus.
Mask mandates, lockdowns, school closures and many, many more destructive government-imposed policies gave way to vaccine passports and other discriminatory mandates that still have ramifications today.
READ: Riley Gaines Helps End US Government COVID Vaccine Mandate
There's been a wealth of evidence accumulated over time confirming that these policies had no impact on the spread of COVID, and equal amounts of evidence showing the harms. But an understudied aspect of the pandemic and global government's response is the impact of lifting restrictions.
It stands to reason, but if the policies that Anthony Fauci and his allies demanded were so effective, there would be huge surges and increases in infections, hospitalizations and deaths after they were lifted. Right?
Dr. Anthony Fauci. (Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)
New Study Confirms Lifting COVID Mandates Did Not Matter
School closures have become one of the most heavily debated policies around the pandemic, considering their tremendous harms and the obvious difference in risk between age groups. Children lost formative years of education, athletics and socialization due to adults unnecessarily panicking over COVID. Many of us knew school closures were unnecessary at the time, and Sweden proved it within the first few months of the pandemic.
Still, closures persisted well into 2021 in extreme parts of the country, like Los Angeles, and even then reopening were tied to mask mandates and forced absences with even the slightest sign of symptoms.
And a new study has confirmed that those policies, and many others, were entirely pointless. How? Because ending them had no impact whatsoever on the trajectory of COVID metrics.
The study examined cases, hospitalization rates and mortality figures from the Delta and Omicron period, essentially mid-2021 to early 2022. Figures were examined in Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland and the UK, particularly in the period just before and just after schools opened.
"Data were extracted from government websites. Cases and COVID-19 hospitalization and death incidence rates were calculated during the Delta and early Omicron periods in Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland and the United Kingdom, for two weeks preceding and six weeks after schools reopened. We summarized stringency of public health measures (GRI), COVID-19 vaccination rates by age and SARS-CoV-2 testing rates."
Sure enough, they found that reopening schools had no impact whatsoever on any metric. None.
"No consistent patterns in cases, hospitalizations or deaths despite school re-openings or changes to public health measures," the study authors write.
No consistent pattern as a result of reopening schools or changing public health measures. That's it. That's the end of the COVID extremist case. None of these policies mattered, because ending them had no impact on COVID outcomes whatsoever. Don't take my word for it, that's literally what the study authors wrote.
"School reopening did not alter existing trajectories of COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths during Delta and early Omicron."
Keep in mind, we were relentlessly hounded by experts and the media during the Delta and Omicron periods that these new variants were more transmissible, more dangerous, more easily spread by everyone. And even during that timeframe, lifting public health measures and reopening schools made no difference.
Drilling down deeper into the data, it's clear how little human action altered the trajectory of COVID.
"During Delta, cases increased in 2/7 sites after schools reopened, hospitalizations increased in 1/5 sites, while deaths decreased in one and increased then decreased in another. During Omicron, cases increased in 2/8 sites, hospitalizations increased in 1/6 sites and deaths increased in 1/4 sites. The hospitalization and death rate trends that commenced before schools reopened continued on the same trajectory after schools reopened. Vaccination rates in ≥70-year-olds were 75–100% during Delta and 95–100% during Omicron. Wide variations in testing rates may explain differences in case incidence. GRI were higher and more variable during Delta than during Omicron."
No consistent pattern, because the virus was effectively out of human control once in a particular region.
Here's their breakdown of COVID metrics in the Delta variant period, with the grey shaded area representing the school reopening period.
Fig. 1. Rates of SARS-CoV-2 cases, COVID-19 hospitalizations, and COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 population in Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, England and Scotland during the Delta period, stratified by age group. The observation period covers two weeks prior to and six weeks after school reopening (i.e. during school holiday/closure and following reopening period). Rates are presented as seven-day or moving seven-day averages depending on data availability. The lines represent primary school-aged children (purple), secondary school-aged children (green) and non-school-aged people (orange). School holidays/closures are shaded grey. Partial school reopenings (combination of in-person and online learning) are shaded yellow. Stringency of government measures is shown as a dotted line. The first confirmed cases of the Omicron variant in England and Scotland were detected towards the end of their respective observation periods and are denoted by the vertical blue lines. NSW: New South Wales; VIC: Victoria.
Whatever trajectory cases, hospitalizations and deaths were on prior to schools reopening, they continued right on that same path afterwards.
It's the same story in the Omicron period.
Fig. 2. Rates of SARS-CoV-2 cases, COVID-19 hospitalisations, and COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 population in Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, England and Scotland during the first six months of the Omicron period, stratified by age group. The observation period covers two weeks prior to and six weeks after school reopening (i.e. during school holiday/closure and following reopening period). Rates are presented as seven-day or moving seven-day averages depending on data availability. The lines represent primary school-aged children (purple), secondary school-aged children (green) and non-school-aged people (orange). School holidays/closures are shaded grey. Partial school reopenings (combination of in-person and online learning) are shaded yellow. Stringency of government measures is shown as a dotted line. ACT: Australian Capital Territory; NSW: New South Wales; QLD: Queensland; TAS: Tasmania.
As they explain, the media and expert fearmongering after holiday periods was also unfounded.
"Most importantly, we found that the existing trajectory for hospitalizations and deaths during the school holidays (either increasing or decreasing) continued on the same trend upon schools reopening for onsite learning. Our findings are consistent with a review including nine observational studies which was conducted in October 2022 and found that schools do not substantially contribute to community incidence, hospitalizations, or mortality…"
After examining the severity and stringency of public health safety measures (PHSM), the researchers also concluded that community mandates were also pointless.
"Although we did not have information on site-specific school mitigation measures, GRI levels indicate that the observed trends may have had little to do with community PHSM."
Again, this is, or should be, yet another death knell for the obsession with mandates from the public health community, their media partners, and politicians who demanded compliance. It won't be, because as we've learned, especially recently, there can be no accountability for those who are protected by being in the right political class. But if their extremist, authoritarian policies were necessary or effective, this study would show it.
Instead, it demonstrates that mandates, closures and so-called "safety" measures didn't help anyone. Well, except those who profited from them.