According to Stanford University, which compared the epidemic curves in 8 different countries having adopted authoritarian policies against Covid-19 (business shutdowns, curfews, lockdown) with those in 2 other countries which simply opted for providing the population with appropriate advice, the results for the two groups show no significant difference.

The study was carried out in Germany, Spain, the United States, France, Iran, Italy, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom for the first category and South Korea and Sweden for the second.

The researchers concluded that, while some benefits cannot be ruled out, they “failed to find strong evidence supporting a role for more restrictive measures in the control of COVID in early 2000” in the 8 countries considered. Curbing the case growth may also be achievable through behavioural changes resulting from less stringent methods.