Without the first lockdown and then vaccinations the number of deaths in France due to Covid-19 between March 2020 and October 2021 would have more than doubled.

He came to this conclusion scientific study published on February 2, 2024 in the journal Epidemics.

As reported in the study, the first lockdown reduced the number of new infections in France by 84%, while in terms of vaccines, they prevented 159,000 deaths from the end of 2020, when the first RNA-based preparations appeared, until October 2021. Without them, mortality linked to the epidemic would therefore have more than doubled, since Covid-19 killed 116,000 people in the same period.

The study also confirms “the importance of rapid decision-making in the event of an emerging epidemic with exponential spread,” Rodolphe Thibault of the University of Bordeaux, who coordinated the study, told reporters, noting that if the first restriction had had it come into effect on March 10 instead of March 17, 2020, when the first wave swept through France, between 13,000 and 26,000 lives would have been saved.

He concluded that the first lockdown was the most effective, reducing transmission by 84%, while the second one slowed it by 74%.