Commentary Restricted freedoms in the face of a new pathogen. It’s fair to say that we panicked in those fateful spring months of 2020. Ever since, the heated conversations, angered populations, lost friendships, and moralistic battles have split societies down the middle. Back then politicians, partly influenced by poor epidemiological modeling, opted for a set of policies we’ve gotten used to call “lockdowns.” They usually involved various degrees of mandating the closure of public places, that schoolchildren be sent home from school, that employers vacate their premises such that employees wouldn’t physically interact, or strict government edicts that you mustn’t leave your home. Two years into this experiment, it’s about time to assemble the evidence. Did lockdowns live up to their trotted potential? Did they “save lives” and “stop the spread” and all the other slogans we painfully heard talking heads sputter? Many have tried. There are plenty of studies that show no virus-mitigating effects of …