Stop using lockdowns to fight virus, says World Health Organisation

A special adviser to the World Health Organisation has urged governments not to use lockdowns as their primary method of controlling the spread of COVID-19.

A flag bearing the World Health Organization (WHO) logo is seen at WHO’s headquarters in Geneva. Picture: Fabrice Coffrini

A special adviser to the World Health Organisation has urged governments not to use lockdowns as their primary method of controlling the spread of COVID-19, saying strict restrictions had a dramatic negative ­effect on lives.

David Nabarro, the WHO’s coronavirus special envoy, said lockdowns “just have one consequence that you must never, ever belittle — and that is making poor people an awful lot poorer”.

“The only time we believe a lockdown is justified is to buy you time to reorganise, regroup, rebalance your resources, protect your health workers who are exhausted — but by and large, we’d rather not do it,” he said.

Dr Nabarro, who made the comments in an interview with Britain’s The Spectator, said it was preferable to have tracing and hospital plans in place to deal with the coronavirus.

“And so we really do appeal to all world leaders: stop using lockdown as your primary control method. Develop better systems for doing it. Work together and learn from each other,” he said.

“It seems that we may well have a doubling of world poverty by next year,” he said.

“We may well have at least a doubling of child malnutrition. This is a terrible, ghastly global catastrophe.”

Dr Nabarro’s intervention follows similar comments made by Tedros Ghebreyesus in August, in which the WHO director-general described lockdowns as “not a long-term solution for any ­country”.

“We do not need to choose between lives and livelihoods, or between health and the economy. That’s a false choice,” he said at a briefing in August.

Parts of Europe are re-entering stricter lockdowns as another wave of the coronavirus sends infection rates soaring. Spain declared a state of emergency across Madrid at the weekend, while France has posted record COVID-19 numbers and closed bars and restaurants.

Yet some authorities are having trouble implementing new lockdowns, with a regional government in Spain successful opposing in court orders barring residents from leaving the area without a valid reason.

The Madrid court said the restrictions were “interference by public authorities in citizens’ fundamental rights without the legal mandate to support it”.

In Britain, the government will hand control over coronavirus testing and tracing to local councils as new lockdowns come into force, with some in the worst-­affected areas told to avoid all but essential travel.

Local health modellers have also said extended lockdowns will have a serious impact on mental health and create “heightened psychological distress”. Modelling by the University of Sydney’s Brain and Mind Centre suggests the mental health bill from COVID-19 lockdowns and unemployment may reach $114bn in lost productivity in five years.