Covid: were the lockdowns worth it?

Governments around the world followed the authoritarian example of China in dealing with the emergence of Covid-19. Was that a wise choice?

Health Secretary Matt Hancock © TOLGA AKMEN/AFP via Getty Images
Matt Hancock is mulling yet more house arrests
(Image credit: Health Secretary Matt Hancock © TOLGA AKMEN/AFP via Getty Images)

What’s happened?

In the face of a rise in Covid-19 cases (though not a significant rise in hospitalisations or deaths), England is tightening its rules on social gatherings from Monday, making it illegal to gather in groups of more than six. Currently, two households of any size are allowed to meet indoors or outdoors – as are up to six people from several households outdoors – but the police have had no powers to stop gatherings unless they exceeded 30. The change, which applies to private homes but not schools or workplaces, is part of a widespread retightening of Covid-19 restrictions across Europe. This week, health secretary Matt Hancock refused to rule out a second blanket lockdown – a move that is also under consideration in Spain and France. And while that appears a remote prospect for now, the possibility is certain to intensify the debate over whether lockdowns actually work.

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Simon Wilson’s first career was in book publishing, as an economics editor at Routledge, and as a publisher of non-fiction at Random House, specialising in popular business and management books. While there, he published Customers.com, a bestselling classic of the early days of e-commerce, and The Money or Your Life: Reuniting Work and Joy, an inspirational book that helped inspire its publisher towards a post-corporate, portfolio life.   

Since 2001, he has been a writer for MoneyWeek, a financial copywriter, and a long-time contributing editor at The Week. Simon also works as an actor and corporate trainer; current and past clients include investment banks, the Bank of England, the UK government, several Magic Circle law firms and all of the Big Four accountancy firms. He has a degree in languages (German and Spanish) and social and political sciences from the University of Cambridge.