WHY I BEGAN TO FEEL THAT THE STRICT COVID 19 RESTRICTIONS ARE ILL-THOUGHT OUT, CALLOUS, AND SELF-DESTRUCTIVE
When
most of the world started to impose strong Covid 19 restrictions in mid
March, my partner and I were in Bali. Bali was immediately in financial
trouble. Tourism dried up overnight. Shops, bars, restaurants had no
tourist customers and locals had to watch what they spent. Their
livelihoods ended overnight.
We
had met a number of young men from East Timor who would come to Bali
during the tourist season to make money to take home. Their income
disappeared and some did not know how they were going to get back to
East Timor where their families were. Everywhere we could see that the
populace was stressed.
We
were stressed as well because the airport had cancelled so many
flights. Canada was warning that its borders would be closed. We were
able to get a combination of flights that took about 48 hours to get
back to Canada. Thanks to EVA airlines, we were not charged any
additional money or service charge for leaving Bali earlier than
scheduled. In fact, we had to spend almost a full day at Taiwan at the
airport (we could not go into the city) and EVA arranged for us to stay,
sleep, shower, and get meals in their VIP lounge.
We felt bad about the negative impacts to Bali we saw, but we
were as concerned as everyone else about this horrible unknown disease
that was threatening the planet. We firmly believed that what was being
done was for the good of world health.
We
got back to Canada and had to stay in our condo in strict isolation for
14 days. Luckily, friends left some food for us outside our condo door,
so we survived.
I
had lots of time to keep abreast of what was being reported about Covid
19 and the restrictions imposed to ensure health of the general
population. However, I was immediately struck by the fact that Sweden
was using a much softer approach to dealing with Covid 19. I loved the
Swedish medical professionals. Just a few years ago,the Swedish medical
system saved my life after I had been given a medication on a Princess
Cruise ship which exacerbated a diarrheal condition to the point of my
health being critically affected. The ship ordered me off in Stockholm,
and I went right to a hospital where they quickly treated me and the
condition was basically under control in six hours. In fact, by a number
of medical sources, Sweden is ranked in the top three medical systems
in the world. Having my life saved cost me $400 Canadian Dollars in
Sweden.
So,
as a social scientist, I started looking at what Sweden was doing and
at all the statistical data I could find about Covid 19 and the
restrictions imposed.
Over
the next 6 months what I discovered was alarming!
All
my information comes from a variety of news media, medical, psychology,
statistical sites that are considered legitimate. Thus most of the
Blogs deal with the horrendous consequences of the Covid 19
restrictions. Every blog cites evidence from legitimate sources -- not
Donald Trump, not Fox News and not Conspiracy sites.
My
first results were the mortality rate of Covid 19 at 4% compared to
SARS at 9-11% and MERS at over 30% yet the world did not shut down for
these other illnesses. Now mortality rates for Covid 19 is somewhere
between 2% and 0.14%,
domestic violence and suicide rates have increased significantly
health experts are warning of a mental disorder pandemic
unemployment is steadily rising to rates not seen for many decades
individuals and families are threatened with losing their livelihoods, their homes, their security
As
part of Covid 19 restrictions, homeless shelters have been closed in at
least North American and European countries, so now the homeless live
in crowded tent cities or on the streets of a city.
financial analyst are now saying that economic recovery may take a decade (comparing to the depression starting in 1929)
government debt will be totally out of control, leading to the cutting of essential services in the future.
small business bankruptcies are on the increase, decreasing competition and thus increasing monopolies
one
of the worse effects is the additional deaths of not only cancer
patients, but also those suffering from lung disease, kidney disease,
HIV/AIDS, cholera, etc because our medical systems have geared themselves to deal with the flu-like symptoms of Covid 19.
between
120 million and 270 million will die from starvation because the
financial collapse caused by Covid 19 restrictions has caused a collapse
of the transportation systems and the food industry in developing
countries.
How
is Sweden doing, using a sensible, non-lockdown approach to Covid 19
and now most likely having the highest percentage of the population with
Covid 19 immunity because they never had a lock down?
As of November 26, 2020, Sweden
ranks 43rd in rate of infections per population. Sweden ranks 23rd in
mortality rate per population. To put this in perspective, Belgium, France, Italy, Spain, and UK, who imposed some of the strictest and earliest lock downs in
the world, rank 1st, 13th, 6th, 5th, and 8th respectively in mortality rate per population.
Economically Sweden has outperformed most of the EU . In addition, Sweden has not suffered the increase in suicides, domestic violence, death of non-covid 19 partients, and mental health problems as have the lock down countries.
In my blogs, the links to main stream
press are provided so that people stop thinking that I am a nut.
The sources of this information is the press, Canadian -- CBC, Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail; Europe -- BBC, London Times, Euronews; American -- NY Times, Washington Post, Los Angelos Times
Government
and Not for Profit Organizations -- UN, Oxfam, CDC, WHO, Cancer
Society, Lung Association, Lung Foundation, AIDS network of Canada,
Worldometer,
Have a look at my latest summary of the devastation caused by Frenzied Covid 19 restrictions and make up your own mind.
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