Study Finds That Shutdowns Prevented 60 Million Infections

60 million infections prevented in the US
285 million in China
530 million in total across the six countries studied

Public health measures have been disruptive, but they’ve saved millions of lives. https://t.co/dkrntYTOkE

— Dr. Tom Frieden (@DrTomFrieden) June 8, 2020

A new study claims the nationwide lockdown prevented up to 60 million coronavirus infections in the U.S. – and more than half a billion worldwide.

Researchers with the University of California-Berkeley say that without the quarantine – especially in the early days of the outbreak – the U.S. would have seen another 5 million confirmed cases – with the ‘real’ number closer to 60 million.  Currently the U.S. has seen about 1.9 million cases with 105,000 deaths.

Stay-at-home orders and business closures were the most effective measures, while school closures seemed to have little impact, the report claims.  Travel restrictions and bans on large gatherings had “mixed results”.