These efforts bore fruit during the pandemic, as social distancing restrictions meant that members could not meet freely.
These efforts bore fruit during the pandemic, as social distancing restrictions meant that members could not freely meet.
Thanks.
I would keep the comma. Others might not agree with me. I’m old school. Modern writers use less commas than in the past.
I would use freely meet.
Meet freely has a political feel to it, as a type of freedom. This is not about freedoms. It’s about special circumstances to deal with the pandemic. They still have freedom to meet via social media, by phone, etc.
Your original sentence is fine.
Your possible changes are fine as well, though I like the original a little better.
As for “not meet freely,” you might consider “not meet as a group” to be a little more explicit, if that fits your intent. When you say there were restrictions you are already saying essentially “not freely”.
This is acceptable except for the comma after the main clause.
When we begin a sentence with a subordinate clause, we put a comma after it.
So, “These efforts bore fruit during the pandemic as social distancing restrictions meant that members could not meet freely.” should be better.
The comma suggesting a pause has no purpose here. I feel that the emphasis is on ‘meet’ in this context. It therefore needs to come first. ‘Freely’ is a refinement.