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.