[rswail]

Yes, there were deaths as a result of the lockdown. There was definitely increases in mental health problems and associated effects like domestic violence and addictive behaviors. There are scars that will take time to heal. There are likely to be ongoing effects that will need to be addressed.

However, the effect of these needs to be balanced against the effect of not controlling the spread of COVID. There were also other benefits, for example, much lower influenza and other winter diseases due to lack of contact and masks and social distancing.

By controlling and reducing the number of cases, we had lower rates and now almost eliminated hospitalizations. There were interruptions in "elective" surgeries, but required surgery and hospitalization for other disease suffered much less than it could have.