Chief White House medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci said during a televised interview with the BBC this week that he doesn’t believe it can be known if the COVID-19 lockdowns and restrictions were worth the unintended costs to people.

“I don’t think we’re ever going to be able to determine what the right balance is,” Fauci said during an interview on the BBC’s Sunday Morning television broadcast. “I think the restrictions, if you want to use that word, which I tend to shy away from, lockdowns, certainly prevented a lot of infections, prevented a lot of hospitalizations, and prevented a lot of deaths. There’s no doubt about that.”

He did say that the level of “restrictions on society” imposed during the two years of the pandemic led to “unintended, negative consequences,” such as children not attending school and the psychological effects it could have on them, and the economic stress that the restrictions placed on individual families and the national economy.