News Analysis Public health experts and politicians around the world have implemented compulsory lockdown policies to curb the COVID-19 infection and death rates. But, have these lockdown measures been successful in reducing mortality from the disease? According to a new study released by Johns Hopkins University, lockdowns have had little to no impact on COVID-19 mortality. As the world scrambles to contain the coronavirus, many social scientists are studying huge data sets to explain the relationship between lockdowns and death rates. Early epidemiological studies predicted large positive effects of these lockdown measures. Researchers at the Imperial College London, for example, estimated that such compulsory interventions could reduce death rates by up to 98 percent. But the new study by researchers Steve Hanke, Jonas Herby, and Lars Jonung challenges these early predictions. “Overall, we conclude that lockdowns are not an effective way of reducing mortality rates during a pandemic, at least not during the first wave of the …