Well, it sure is convenient that this information is coming out just in time for the Biden presidency…

According to Newsweek, a new study evaluating global COVID-19 responses found that lockdowns “did not provide significantly more benefits to slowing the spread of the disease than other voluntary measures…”

The study was conducted by Stanford researchers and analyzed the growth in COVID cases in 10 countries in early 2020.

“The study compared cases in England, France, Germany, Iran, Italy, Netherlands, Spain and the U.S. – all countries that implemented mandatory lockdown orders and business closures – to South Korea and Sweden, which implemented less severe, voluntary responses. It aimed to analyze the effect that less restrictive or more restrictive measures had on changing individual behavior and curbing the transmission of the virus,” writes Newsweek.

The researchers found “no clear, significant beneficial effect [of more restrictive measures] on case growth in any country.”

There has been a growing chorus of strict lockdown proponents doing complete 180s as it relates to their COVID policies, and now politicians like New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot are breathlessly claiming they must reopen businesses quickly.

Earlier this week, Cuomo tweeted, “We simply cannot stay closed until the vaccine hits critical mass. The cost is too high. We will have nothing left to open. We must reopen the economy, but we must do it smartly and safely.”

We simply cannot stay closed until the vaccine hits critical mass. The cost is too high. We will have nothing left to open. We must reopen the economy, but we must do it smartly and safely.#SOTS2021

— Archive: Governor Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) January 11, 2021

Lightfoot said reopening is imperative because the closures forced residents into “secret, underground parties in hotels and businesses.”

“If we have people and give them an outlet for entertainment … we have much more of an opportunity, in my view, to be able to regulate and control that environment,” Lightfoot said.

“Let’s bring it out of the shadows. Let’s allow them to have some recreation in restaurants, in bars, where we can actually work with responsible owners and managers to regulate and protect people from COVID-19.”

These Democrat leaders couldn’t even wait for Biden’s inauguration to do an about-face on their COVID policies which we all know were put in place to damage President Trump’s legacy.