Lockdowns Don’t Work, Says World Health Organisation (Who)

Just as the UK prepares for more COVID-19 restrictions, the World Health Organization (WHO) is now saying that lockdowns are not helpful, and all they do is increase poverty.

Dr David Nabarro from the WHO appealed to world leaders yesterday, telling them to stop “using lockdowns as your primary control method” of the coronavirus.

“We really do appeal to all world leaders: stop using lockdown as your primary control method,” he said.

The call is basically a 180 degree turn from its original position now wanting world leaders to stop locking down their countries and economies.

The only thing lockdowns achieved was poverty, Nabarro said, but didn’t how many potential lives saved.

WHO has come under heavy criticism under this pandemic for chopping and changing its prescriptions on how to best deal with the COVID-19 virus.

Early in the crisis WHO appeared not to recognize the potential for the virus to burst out of its China origins and create a worldwide pandemic. Also, the organization was firmly against the wearing of face masks except for health workers, but completely changed that position later on.

“Lockdowns just have one consequence that you must never ever belittle, and that is making poor people an awful lot poorer,” he said.

The importance of avoiding lockdown measures was also stated on Friday, when WHO expert Mike Ryan said that authorities should try to avoid “punishing” lockdowns.

He was speaking at a news conference in Geneva, one day after the WHO reported a record one-day increase in global coronavirus cases, with the total rising by 338,779 in 24 hours led by a surge of infections in Europe.

“What we want to try to avoid – and sometimes it’s unavoidable and we accept that – but what we want to try and avoid is these massive lockdowns that are so punishing to communities, to society and to everything else,” he said.