[D66] [JD: 109] Lockdowns are 'the single biggest public health mistake in history', says top scientist

[R.O.]

telegraph.co.uk
<https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/06/10/lockdowns-single-biggest-public-health-mistake-history-says/>



  Lockdowns are 'the single biggest public health mistake in history',
  says top scientist

By Phoebe Southworth 10 June 2021 • 6:00am
2-3 minutes
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lockdowns
<https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/06/09/covid-lockdown-roadmap-june-21-rules-restrictions-lifting-when-end/>
will be seen as the "single biggest public health mistake" in history, a
Stanford University professor has warned.

Jay Bhattacharya, a professor of medicine, told The Telegraph's Planet
Normal podcast <https://telegraph.co.uk/planet-normal>, which you can
listen to using the audio player above, that there have been "enormous
collateral consequences" of keeping people inside and isolating them
from their loved-ones during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The epidemiologist believes many scientists have clung onto the
perceived effectiveness of lockdowns
<https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/06/08/covid-deaths-lowest-level-since-first-lockdown-ons-finds/>,
and they "remain attached" to the idea despite the "failure of this
strategy".

"I do think that future historians will look back on this and say this
was the single biggest public health mistake, possibly of all history,
in terms of the scope of the harm that it's caused," said Prof Bhattacharya.

"Every single poor person on the face of the earth has faced some harm,
sometimes catastrophic harm, from this lockdown policy.

"Almost from the very beginning, lockdown was going to have enormous
collateral consequences, things that are sometimes hard to see but are
nevertheless real."

Prof Bhattacharya gave the example of children who are abused at home,
who may have been unable to get the help they need during lockdowns
because there are no adults present who could step in.

In addition, many patients with serious illnesses or who may have an
undiagnosed illness have been reluctant to attend hospital over fears of
catching the virus, he said.

"All of those kinds of harms, I think, even from the very beginning were
going on. And yet we closed our eyes to them because we were so scared
about the virus and so enamoured with this idea that the lockdown could
stop the virus."

/Listen to Planet Normal, a weekly Telegraph podcast featuring news and
views from beyond the bubble, using the audio player above or subscribe
for free on Apple Podcasts
<https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/planet-normal/id1514949294>, Spotify
<https://open.spotify.com/show/6eq60us4awtElUdUNBnyq7> or your preferred
podcast app./


          Join Allison Pearson and Liam Halligan to discuss lockdowns,
          public health and the latest Planet Normal episode in the
          comments section of this article at 11am on Thursday June 10.

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