Governments have a solemn responsibility to ensure the health and well-being of the populations they govern. The COVID-19 pandemic reveals just how serious governments take this responsibility and that restricting activity to limit pathogen spread can have other public health repercussions. Comparisons between February 2019 and 2020 air quality measures reveal that six cities that were impacted early by government restrictions in response to COVID-19 show consistent declines in five of six major air pollutants. Given that air pollution causes more than four million premature deaths annually, the declines in air pollution in response to activity changes confirm that governments have the capability to improve air quality through policy change.