Montreal university study describes COVID-19 sanitary measures as 'generally effective'

A study aimed at countering online misinformation finds that health measures taken by governments to protect against COVID-19 helped save lives and reduce the number of people hospitalized in 2020.

The study was published in the most recent edition of AJPM Focus, a publication of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. In it, Dr. Mohsen Farhadloo, assistant professor in the Department of Supply Chain Management and Business Technology at the John Molson School of Business, and James Peters, doctoral student at Concordia University, argue that measures put in place by governments around the world during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic "were generally effective in mitigating the impact of the health consequences of COVID-19."

Ten non-pharmaceutical measures implemented between January and June 2020 were analyzed, such as face-covering, school and business closures, social distancing and travel restrictions.

The research consists of a systematic review, which integrates quantitative data from 44 studies worldwide. The aim was to comb through "research that has examined the effect of non-pharmaceutical interventions on certain aspects of health, such as the number of cases (of COVID-19), or the effect of interventions on hospitalizations or on the mortality rate of the population," Farhadloo told The Canadian Press.

"It was important for us to consider not only the impact on mortality, but also cases and hospitalizations since these were relevant outcomes of the pandemic," James Peters said in an email.

According to Farhadloo, research focusing only on one variable — the impact on mortality — can lead to erroneous conclusions.

Research Results

The researchers' findings show that wearing a mask reduced the global mortality rate by 2.76 cases per 100,000 people, and by 0.19 per cent. Travel restrictions reduced the rate of increase in cases by 10 per cent, and school closures by 8 per cent, according to Farhadloo.

For James Peters, the most surprising result of the study is the time between the announcement of a health measure and its concrete effects. "For example, we found that containment measures led to a reduction of 2.9 cases of COVID-19 per 100,000 people, but these effects were not observed until four weeks after they were implemented," he said.

According to the study, closing restaurants and bars also had an impact in reducing mortality, only after four weeks.

Researchers are urging policy-makers to take this timeframe into account when developing and evaluating these measures.

All in all, for these researchers, the results prove that the measures have all had at least some impact, either on reducing the number of cases, hospitalizations or deaths linked to COVID-19.

Countering misinformation

This research, which began in 2022, is "in response to existing health misinformation on social networks," said Farhadloo.

According to him, it remains very easy to contribute to misinformation online, or even within the scientific literature.

"It's crucial to raise public awareness of the prevalence of health-related misinformation, and it's important to understand that we need to provide the public with the means to assess the quality of the health information they receive on social networks," he said..

Farhadloo is now conducting research into the quality of health information shared on X, formerly known as Twitter.