Measuring the Unintended Effect of Nonpharmaceutical Intervention

Abstract

The emergence of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has posed a considerable health burden. Prior to the introduction of vaccines and therapeutics, non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPI) has been a significant appeal in aim to reduce the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 virus. The theory of NPI in mitigating from communicable disease dates back to 1919, when school closure and public gathering bans have shown effectiveness in preventing spread of pandemic influenza.1 In U.K., a modelling study estimated that there was more than 3 million deaths potentially averted between January and May of 2020 due to COVID-19 following the introduction of NPI in Europe.2 While there has been substantial reduction in COVID-19 related disease burden, there were unexpected, or more to say, unintended health outcomes that have been likely resulted from social distancing measures. © 2022. The Korean Academy of Medical Sciences. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.