Some Restrictions Against COVID Have Been Rejected By Several Scientists

Since the beginning of the COVID pandemic, many restrictions have been applied all around the world. We have already gone through total confinements, closures of economic activity, the mandatory wearing of masks, limits on meetings and capacity, curfews and much more.

Currently, some of these restrictive measures are still mandatory in some countries to prevent the spread of the virus among the population, however, now several scientific experts have assured that many of these restrictions would serve no purpose, on the contrary, they could even be counterproductive.

A group of German researchers has already contacted high-ranking politicians in their country to warn them of their considerations. In a letter, they have warned their government that certain COVID prevention measures should be changed.

One that stands out is the curfew, this group of scientists considers that the real risk of coronavirus infection is indoors, therefore, it does not make sense for them to impose measures that prevent the population from going outdoors.

"Measures that penalize outdoor movement are ineffective and harmful,"  they state in their letter to the government. Not only this but, as we have said, they focus especially on the curfew, assuring that it is a "useless deception and even with quite a risk".

In their opinion, it is a measure that makes people hold even more gatherings in private spaces because, after a certain hour, they are prevented from being outdoors. Therefore, a large percentage of those people who would hold meetings outdoors and without risk, go to do so indoors, with a much higher risk of contagion.

"The curfews that are so fashionable at the moment should also be included in this list of misleading communications. Because they make more promises than they can keep," they state in their letter.

This group of experts is very clear,  the risk is indoors and in outdoor spaces it is almost non-existent: "Outdoor infections are extremely rare and never lead to cluster infections that can occur indoors. Group transmissions of infection occur on bus rides, choir rehearsals, events, residences... but not outdoors," they point out.

They assure that with this type of measures the only thing they achieve is to confuse and create mistrust in people: "We are making them handle erroneous concepts about the forms of contagion associated with this virus, with the danger that this entails".

They claim, therefore, that there should be much more awareness of the risk of contagion in the case of indoor gatherings and allow more meetings and other activities in outdoor spaces since, in those cases, the risk would be minimal.

"What we are doing in the country is taking more symbolic measures that lead to nothing, such as for example the requirement that people have to wear a mask when they go running outdoors," they reproach in their letter to the government.

Their summary of their own letter is, therefore, clear and concise: "If we want to control the pandemic, we have to make people aware that danger lurks inside". That is why they say it is always better to go outdoors than to stay indoors.

[This is a translation of the original article "Las restricciones contra el covid que varios científicos rechazan: 'Un engaño inútil'" published in espanadiario.net]