The past three months have proved it: the costs of lockdown are too high | Larry Elliott

Governments now know the economic, social, health and educational costs of full Covid-19 lockdowns scar too deeply

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The past three months have been a global experiment to test whether modern economies built on social interaction are compatible with methods for tackling a pandemic that haven't moved on much since the Black Death.

The results are now in. Lockdowns are toxic for a world in which people travel to work on buses or commuter trains, spend eight hours with their colleagues at the office, spend their lunch hour doing a bit of shopping, and head off in the evening to the pub, the theatre or the football.