“Conclusion: There is a need to normalise how we view COVID-19 because its costs and risks are comparable to other health problems (such as cancer, heart problems, diabetes) where governments have made resource decisions for decades. Treating possible future COVID-19 deaths as if nothing else matters is going to lead to bad outcomes. Good decision making does not mean paying little attention to the collateral damage that comes from responding to a worst-case COVID-19 scenario.
The lockdown is a public health policy and we have valued its impact using the tools that guide health care decision [sic] in the UK public health system. On that basis and taking a wide range of scenarios of costs and benefits of severe restrictions, we find the lockdown has consistently generated costs that are greater—and often dramatically greater—than possible benefits.”