Introduction by Croakey: After more than two years of living with COVID-19, research is now revealing that some changes forced on society by pandemic control measures may have actually saved lives. It seems counter-intuitive but think of the reduction in influenza pneumonia deaths and lower air pollution during lockdowns, and the reduced use of unnecessary tests, diagnoses and treatments.

Researchers from the University of Sydney, Wiser Healthcare Research Collaboration and the University of Wollongong explain in the article that all healthcare services have potential harms as well as benefits and we can use the ‘natural experiment’ of the pandemic to identify where a reduction in a health service may have been helpful, not harmful.

Read the article in Croakey and the full paper here.