"During the COVID-19 crisis, several authors have argued that from a public health point of view, these invasive interventions such as lockdowns have been unnecessary [
128,
129,
130,
131] and, indeed, detrimental to overall public health [
132,
133]. In fact, prior scientific research on disease mitigation measures during a possible influenza pandemic had warned against such invasive interventions and recommended a more normal social functioning [
134]. Moreover, in reaction to past pandemics such as the Asian flu of 1957–1958, there were no lockdowns [
135], and research before 2020 had opposed lockdowns [
136]. From this perspective, the lockdowns have been a policy error. We have shown that these policy errors may well have been produced by a collective hysteria. To which extent there has been a mass hysteria during the COVID-19 crisis is open for future research."
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https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/labs/pmc/articles/PMC7913136/