A new report released from Johns Hopkins University shows that government-imposed lockdowns put in place in the United States and throughout the world as a response to COVID-19 were ineffective in preventing deaths. Apparently, this was not newsworthy to the three broadcast evening newscasts who all decided to ignore the report on Tuesday. On the other hand, Fox News' Special Report covered the story during the show's A-block.
Fox News correspondent Gillian Turner who was filling in for anchor Bret Baier opened the segment announcing "we are getting new data points about the unintended consequences of pandemic lockdowns it turns out they had little impact in terms of preventing COVID-19 deaths. Though they have had significant long-term negative effects on school children."
Turner then went to Fox's Atlanta-based correspondent Jonathan Serrie to disclose the significant findings from the Johns Hopkins study.
"Johns Hopkins has published an analysis of data from multiple studies of lockdown measures in the U.S. and Europe during the pandemic. And the authors have determined various restrictions on movement only reduce Covid mortality by an average of 0.2%. And more restrictive shelter in place orders reduce mortality by only 2.9 percent" he reported.
Serrie then announced the key takeaway from the report:
The authors write while this meta-analysis concludes that lockdowns have had little to no public health effects they have imposed enormous economic and social costs where they have been adopted. In consequence, lockdown policies are ill-founded and should be rejected as a pandemic policy instrument.
Among the policy recommendations from Johns Hopkins, which were reported by Serrie, are "to shift the focus to voluntary measures people can take to mitigate their exposure to Covid. The authors write that government authorities have an important role in providing information so that citizens can make informed decisions."
While the results of this study are not surprising to anyone who has been paying attention to the disparity in COVID deaths between states like Florida and New York, the former never fully locked down and the latter locked down completely, this revelation by Johns Hopkins is extremely newsworthy. All three evening newscasts should've spent at least some time informing their viewers about this report.
This latest example of bias by omission by the liberal networks was made possible by endorsements from Progressive on ABC, TD Ameritrade on CBS, & Fidelity on NBC. Their contact information is linked so you can let them know about the biased news they fund.
To read the relevant transcript from the Fox News Special Report segment click "expand":
FNC’s Special Report
2/1/2022
6:03:26 PMGILLIAN TURNER: More major developments in the controversy surrounding coronavirus restrictions. We are getting new data points about the unintended consequences of pandemic lockdowns it turns out they had little impact in terms of preventing COVID-19 deaths. Though they have had significant long-term negative effects on school children. Meanwhile, mask mandates for students are set to take center stage tomorrow in a Virginia courtroom. We got Fox team coverage Lydia Hu is in New York with the financial setbacks looming for students who’ve been denied in-person learning. Mark Meredith’s here in Washington with the Virginia mask fight. But we begin with Jonathan Serrie in Atlanta with how COVID lockdowns have reportedly done very little to prevent coronavirus fatalities, hi, Jonathan.
JONATHAN SERRIE: Good evening, Gillian. During the early days of the pandemic, you had countries around the globe and even states here in the U.S. imposing a series of restrictions. They included closures of schools and businesses, bans on international travel, and both voluntary and mandatory stay-at-home orders for everyone but essential workers. Now, Johns Hopkins has published an analysis of data from multiple studies of lockdown measures in the U.S. and Europe during the pandemic. And the authors have determined various restrictions on movement only reduce COVID mortality by an average of 0.2%. And more restrictive shelter in place orders reduce mortality by only 2.9%. The authors write while this meta-analysis concludes that lockdowns have had little to no public health effects they have imposed enormous economic and social costs where they have been adopted. In consequence, lockdown policies are ill-founded and should be rejected as a pandemic policy instrument.
Although well-intended, lockdowns and mandates have always been controversial because of their disruption to the economy and everyday life. The policy recommendations of this study are to shift the focus to voluntary measures people can take to mitigate their exposure to COVID. The authors write that government authorities have an important role in providing information so that citizens can make informed decisions. Although not specifically mentioned in this study, many U.S. parents are going to have some important decisions to make in the coming weeks when it comes to vaccinating younger children. Today, Pfizer at the urging of the FDA submitted some clinical trial data in support of a proposed expansion to their emergency use authorization if approved by regulators, you could see shots going into the arms of children as young as six months. Gillian?
TURNER: That’s big news. Jonathan Serrie in Atlanta, thank you.
