[jinjin2]

> I personally know 2 people that had their lives shortened by the measures instead of the virus itself

If you look at the global rates of excess deaths:

https://www.ft.com/content/a2901ce8-5eb7-4633-b89c-cbdf5b386... (look under “Death rates”)

It looks like the countries that had early and hard shutdowns (like Denmark and S. Korea), had almost zero excess deaths. Which at least to me seems to indicate that the shutdowns themselves have very low impact.

[rimliu]

We (Lithuania) had a very early and strict shutdow last year and fared wery well during the first wave. We are going into the fifth month of the very strict shutdown during the second wave and we have tons of excess deaths.

[OnACoffeeBreak]

I don't think we have the data to answer the question posed by the grandparent comment. Lifespans have likely been reduced by response to the pandemic. Those whose lifespans have been reduced are still alive and are not showing up in death statistics today.

For example, my grandmother-in-law was selfsufficient before the pandemic. During the pandemic she pretty much stayed in her apartment which resulted in significant loss of mobility. We're not sure whether she'll regain her selfsufficiency, which will probably result in her dying sooner rather than later.

[JimTheMan]

That's very sad to here about your grandmother in law. I too definitely felt an impact of lockdown, it's not zero impact at all.

However looking at other places in the world (not Australia) that had ineffective measures, it's like comparing certain death for a large swathe of the population vs reduced quality of life that many, but not all will recover from.