[disambiguation]

No, I strongly disagree that this saved lives and everyone keeps getting this wrong about the pandemic.

Look at Japan and Russia. Japan was highly compliant with lockdowns, masks, and vaccine inoculation. Russia was the exact opposite. The difference being trust in institutions. You could argue lives were lost in Russia because of the inherent distrust.

In parallel, the USA was caught telling blatant lies. This is exactly what spooked and outraged so many people ultimately fueling the anti-vax movement. "If they're lying about this, what else are they lying about?"

No truth, no trust. The USA lost trust, and lost lives as a result.

[jjeaff]

There are examples of masking and lockdowns that could go either way. The part that I am quite certain about saving lives is telling people that you still needed to get the shot even if you had COVID before.

Many more people would have skipped out on getting it because they thought they had COVID. Because their immunity had waned or because they never really had COVID. I personally know someone that didn't get vaccinated because she had COVID previously. She caught it again in the Delta wave and it killed her. She never had a verified diagnosis the first time, so she may not have had it. But, even if she did, getting vaccinated would have likely boosted her immunity.