MY SWEDISH BASHING SERMON

A friend living in Australia sent me one of those "Sweden Bashing" half-truth, misinformation report. I wrote him an answer and Here it is:

 

Thanks for giving me the opportunity to give you my “bashing Sweden” sermon.

 

On most world rating systems, the Swedish Medical system is almost always rated in the top 3 world wide. It my be 1^st, 2^nd or 3^rd. The Swedish medical establishment did not support strict lockdowns because this strategy was based on the Ferguson model. Ferguson has been terribly wrong in the past and his findings were highly criticized, but, for some reason, WHO bought his predictions and Sweden did not.

 

The medical world propagandist have been bashing Sweden since because they are pissed off that Sweden has done reasonably well compared to the rest of the world, especially lockdown countries. I remember big headlines when Sweden entered the second wave and the third wave, even though the rest of the world was reeling from increased cases as well. If these second and third waves were proof of Swedish Medical incompetence -- these waves were also an indictment of lockdown and other Covid-19 restrictions. Nothing was working very well.

 

The interesting thing is some countries were praised to the high heavens for their strong lockdown approach. Most often mentioned were South Korea, Vietnam, and Israel. Hello ... These countries are in the middle of what is being called an almost 4^th wave. You have to read page 27 in a newspaper, or do a google search and on page 41, you will find mention of these 4^th waves mentioned in Euronews and BBC.

 

Yes, Sweden has had lots of cases and they have had deaths, the aged have been included in these number. Yes, their Swedish medical world is second guessing itself, but so is the Canadian, Vietnamese, South Korean, Israel, the UK, Italy, France (especially) and India to name a few. However, media and websites make little note of this because these countries do not follow the Swedish model.

 

Okay, so let us look at statistics on Worldometer, the site which WHO uses.

 

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

 

In infection rate per million population, Sweden ranks 12^th in the world -- not surprising considering they did not enforce masks or social distancing. However, Sweden’s hospital system was ready and had double bed capacity in anticipation of covid patients, but also preventing the neglect of cancer, heart and stroke, lung, HIV/AIDS , etc victims, victims ignored by most of the world's medical establishment. Yes, most of the world had considerably increased death from illnesses like cancer because Covid-19 was THE only priority. A UK study in the Fall of 2020 project that world wide an estimated 3.5 million additional Cancer patients would die world wide because the Medical Establishment was obsessed with Covid-19 and consider all other illnesses “non-emergency." So the Swedish model was a success in terms of preventing the loss of innocent victims of other diseases.

 

How did the lockdown countries fare -- with respect to the rate of infection -- the Netherlands 15^th, USA 16^th, Belgium 23^rd, Portugal 24^th, Israel 25^th, Spain 28^th, France 29^th, UK 34%

 

One point for the medical propagandist? Remember though, these countries allowed cancer, heart and stroke, etc. patients to die. Sweden did not. Also, the lockdown countries are suffering mental health pandemics, increased suicide and increased death from domestic violence all because of social isolation. Sweden is not.

 

Okay, let us have a look at the death rate per million population. Probably a credit to the Swedish Health system, Sweden ranks 38^th. How did the lockdown countries fare?????? -- with respect to the death rate per million population -- Portugal ranks 29^th, France ranks 28^th, Spain ranks 25^th, USA 21^st, UK ranks 20^th, Italy ranks 16^th, Belgium ranks 14^th, Hungary ranks 2^nd.

 

Ten points for the Swedish approach. no covid-19 medical establishment is giving Sweden any credit for having a low death rate compared to the countries which had the harshest lockdowns. I am not saying the Swedish approach was better with respect to Covid, but it was much better at reducing the catastrophic negative effect of lockdowns suffered by the rest of the world.

 

One other thing since I am a capitalist pig, you may note the medical propagandist mention how much the Swedish economy shrank despite their having no lockdowns. Well, first of all the rest of the EU, the lockdown nations, fared far worse than Sweden. The Swedish economy is also recovering more quickly and they did not have as significant an unemployment problem as did the rest of the world.

 

Two friends died of cancer because their deemed “elective” surgeries to remove cancer were delayed 4 months. Their cancers metastasized. Six acquaintances died of heart failure because their live saving surgery was cancelled owing to obsession with Covid 19. They did not live more than 7 days, so they did not survive long enough for surgery. A beautiful young man in our building jumped from his condo and landed on the outcropping right next to our bedroom window. His partner said that his husband had lost his job and was deeply depressed by the never ending lockdown in Toronto.

 

I have a pre-cancerous condition called Barrett's  esophagus. I am to have a biopsy yearly. My annual biopsy was scheduled for March 2020. It was called "elective and non-emergency" and got cancelled  and I final got the biopsy in November 2020 -- 8 months later. Lucky for me, although the condition had deteriorated, it had not progressed to cancer.

 

This is what I will remember about the medical world during Covid-19. Yes, doctors worked 18 hours a day, allowing non-Covid-19 victims to die. ONLY BY THE GRACE OF GOD, THEY DID NOT KILL ME. Their lockdowns and restrictions also contributed to a worldwide economic collapse leading to incredible unemployment, loss of livelihood, increased homelessness around the world, including Canada. What is worse is that the Financial catastrophic restrictions imposed, led to the breakdown of transportation, the destruction of the food chain, and the 100 million person increase in starvation worldwide -- info published by OXFAM, RED CROSS, and UNESCO.

 

There should be no medals or praise for the medical establishment; they should be charged with criminal negligence or they will cause this same irreparable damage to the world again.

 

Here is more Medical world propaganda and I am ashamed it is reported by the BBC

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-53498133

 

Notice the article uses whole numbers mainly -- rates would show their misinformation. Secondly, they compare Sweden to other “Nordic Nations.” Sweden has a much higher rate of immigration than Norway and Finland. A high percentage of Swedish infections were among immigrants. There are other differences -- Sweden gets many more visitors from Europe and, in fact, around the world. It is more industrialized and is the farthest South of the Nordic Countries (not including Denmark). Anyway, in Europe, the news does compare Sweden more to the EU -- a bit fairer comparison.

 

Okay enough -- think what you want. I can sleep at night because of my blog; I have posted reputable news sources, science journals, NGOs, and NFP organizations reporting of the tragic effects of Covid-19 lockdowns and restrictions.

 

Read these two articles -- they are recent, but the warnings began being posted in April 2020 with dire predictions -- the medical establishment callously ignored them -- calling these travesties collateral damage. The dire predictions have come true.

 

From the BMJ

"Lockdowns can also cause long term health harms, such as from delayed treatment and investigations. Delays in the diagnosis and treatment of various types of cancer, for example, can allow progression of cancer and affect patients’ survival. A three month delay to surgery is estimated to cause more than 4700 deaths a year in the UK.13 In the US, delays in screening and treatment are estimated to cause 250 000 additional preventable deaths of cancer patients each year.14 Furthermore, a sharp decrease in the number of admissions for acute coronary syndromes and emergency coronary procedures has been observed since the start of the pandemic in the US15 and Europe.16 In England, the weekly number of hospital admissions for coronary syndromes fell by 40% between mid-February and the end of March 2020. Fear of exposure to the virus stopped many patients from attending hospital, putting them at increased risk of long term complications of myocardial infarction...

"The coronavirus pandemic is far from over. Many countries are already reeling from the effects of the pandemic response as well as trying to cope with additional waves of dangerous infection rates. Governments will have to make difficult decisions that rely on uncertain and changing data regarding the most effective approaches to contain the pandemic. Although the evidence on the adverse consequences of measures to control covid-19 continues to grow,1325262728 there remains a paucity of any such voices in the public and decision making conversation, which seems to convey a dominant narrative of pandemic mitigation at all costs. This is perhaps a reflection of the challenge of the moment, but we must adopt a more nuanced approach to understanding the pros and cons of different approaches.

A “zero covid” goal is neither realistic nor sustainable for most countries. Instead, public health needs to increase its investment into assessing the harms of policy options from different perspectives and to explicitly consider and transparently report the harmful consequences of public choices when deciding on and evaluating public health strategies to combat SARS-CoV-2. Epidemiologists, health economists, social scientists, psychologists, historians, ethicists, among others, must all contribute to these efforts and assist governments in making informed decisions—improving and protecting the health of all communities."

https://www.bmj.com/content/371/bmj.m4074

 

 

From Frontiers in Psychology -- Health Psychology

 

"As the crisis around Covid-19 evolves, it becomes clear that there are numerous negative side-effects of the lockdown strategies implemented by many countries. Currently, more evidence becomes available that the lockdowns may have more negative effects than positive effects. For instance, many measures taken in a lockdown aimed at protecting human life may compromise the immune system, and purpose in life, especially of vulnerable groups. This leads to the paradoxical situation of compromising the immune system and physical and mental health of many people, including the ones we aim to protect. 

"Also, it is expected that hundreds of millions of people will die from hunger and postponed medical treatments. Other side effects include financial insecurity of billions of people, physical and mental health problems, and increased inequalities. The economic and health repercussions of the crisis will be falling disproportionately on young workers, low-income families and women, and thus exacerbate existing inequalities. As the virus outbreak and media coverage spread fear and anxiety, superstition, cognitive dissonance reduction and conspiracy theories are ways to find meaning and reduce anxiety. These behavioral aspects may play a role in the continuance of lockdown decisions. Based on theories regarding agnotology (i.e., the ways ignorance or doubt about certain topics is created by means of withholding or presenting information in a certain way), social influence, superstition and stress and coping, I seek to explain the social and behavioral aspects of human behavior in times of crises. Both the Covid-19 crisis itself as well as the resulting economic and (mental) health crisis are global problems that may require global solutions. I present a model of drivers and outcomes of lockdown behaviors and offer suggestions and a tool to counteract the negative psychological effects by means of online life crafting therapeutic writing interventions."

 

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.577740/full 

 

 

 THE MEDICAL WORLD IS NOW TRYING TO COVER ITS LACK OF GOOD JUDGEMENT. SOME FAMILIES OF CANCER PATIENTS WHO DIED BECAUSE OF DELAYED SURGERIES HAVE RECEIVED SETTLEMENTS FROM THE DOCTORS AND HOSPITALS INVOLVED. THE POWERS THAT BE CANNOT LET A CASE GO TO TRIAL OR THEY WILL LOSE THEIR LIVELIHOODS AND BE HOMELESS -- LIKE THE GUILTY FELONS THEY ARE.