Did lockdowns save anyone?

Sweden’s former top state epidemiologist has claimed unless a vaccine is found soon, lockdowns like New Zealand’s won’t prevent any deaths at all – just push them into the future.

Johan Giesecke’s call, published by journal The Lancet, comes the same week a new paper claims lockdowns in hard-hit western Europe haven’t saved a single life at all, which has split opinion among experts.

Sweden has taken a different approach to handling the COVID-19 pandemic than most other countries, deciding against a lockdown of any kind, instead relying on people following social distancing guidelines. As of Monday, it had 26,300 confirmed cases and 3225 deaths – far more than its Scandinavian neighbours, but only a fraction of those seen in Spain, Italy and the UK, which have all implemented lockdowns of various kinds.