Early Lockdown Regulations May Have Stopped 60 Million Infections in the US, Research Says

A peer-reviewed study reported that the lockdown regulations mandated by the U.S. government prevented about 60 million more infections in the country.

This is based on a new modeling study published last Monday in the scientific journal Nature. It takes into account the fact that if restrictions--such as stay-at-home orders, travel ban orders, and closing of school orders--were not implemented, then there would have been more infections all across the country.

The study suggested that if certain policies were not followed from the month where the pandemic started, in this case, January, then there would have been an estimated 60 million infected individuals throughout the U.S. 

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The authors of the study utilized a "reduce-form" approach in order to have a proper estimation of how 1,707 interventions created an impact in spreading the virus. These also included other restrictions such as event cancellations, church gatherings, and retail conventions.

Dr. Kevin Dieckhaus of the University of Connecticut Health elaborated that moving forward, the country's business settings have started to be rewritten through various means such as office restructuring, proper disinfection maintenance, and use of face masks. Thus, creating a dissociation between economic activity and case transmission. 

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The chief of infectious diseases added that the study borders on the production of goods and services and how it fans the flame for the coronavirus to spread. 

The estimations found in the study, however, were not limited to the United Staes as it also features the COVID-19 lockdown protocols of France, South Korea, Italy, Iran, and China. This separate research was from the University of California Berkeley. Here is their rough computation:

• A total of 38 million extra contaminations for South Korea

• A total of 45 million extra contaminations for France

• A total of 49 million extra contaminations for Italy

• A total of 54 million extra contaminations for Iran

• A total of 285 million extra contaminations for China

Given these points, they concluded that these five countries' pandemic campaigns positively interfered with possibly 500 million more infections all in all. 

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Lead author for the University of California Berkely study, Solomon Hsian, explained that:

"The last several months have been extraordinarily difficult, but through our individual sacrifices, people everywhere have each contributed to one of humanity's greatest collective achievements."

Their study period lasted only until the first week of April, and he concluded that through the sheer sacrifice of individuals who handed down their freedom by not going out and canceling events, they found a significant difference in the data. The team is hopeful that through science and cooperation, the history of this pandemic will remain a lesson.

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