5 Charts That Show Sweden’s Strategy Worked. The Lockdowns Failed; Sweden Shows there's a better way to combat COVID-19.

Foundation for Economic Education ^ | 10/09/2020 | Jon Miltimore

[Skooz]

Bfl

[arthurus]

Sweden's example cannot be followed because it does not offer the control that the shutdowns entail. many of us said after the first rush of bad news about the Chinese virus that it should be allowed to run its course then later when the nature of it was more apparent, that the at-riskers- should be protected as much as possible but that the rest should be treated as if this is another bout of seasonal flu. A virus like this cannot be contained in the modern world that is all linked up. Heck, such things could not be contined in centuries past with less travel because there has for thousands of years ben contact and trade between civilizations. When a benign plague such as this one(in comparison to Bubonic) is met by lockdowns and rigid control it merely lengthens the virus's stay in the population. It does not cut down on lethality, merely spreads it out and causes a lot more ancillary deaths from depression and untreated other diseases like cancer and heart attack. Let it run and the deaths come in one wave and immunity follows. Even the Spanish Flu of a century ago could not have been mitigated with modern prevention methods though the lethality of that one in modern America would have been much less because of modern treatment capabilities.

But that cannot be done when there is so much political profit and opportunity for the powerful to clamp down controls on the population which will be lifted reluctantly if at all.

[Sergio]

bkmk

[SeekAndFind]

RE: many of us said after the first rush of bad news about the Chinese virus that it should be allowed to run its course then later when the nature of it was more apparent, that the at-riskers- should be protected as much as possible but that the rest should be treated as if this is another bout of seasonal flu

_________________________________

At the start of the pandemic, we can understand the need to lockdown as we did not know the extent of the virus’ lethality and transmissibility. Also, we did not want to overwhelm our hospitals with sick people.

Now, after 7 months, we already know a lot about the virus and what Demographic it is most lethal to. There really is no reason to lockdown totally.

[MinorityRepublican]

Interesting.

[DoodleBob]

There really is no reason to lockdown totally.

I agree, but New Zealand disagrees.

[calenel]

And most people in Sweden live alone. There was plenty of mitigation and social distancing, contrary to the FluBro narrative. Also, take the deliberate murder of people in retirement homes by certain Dem Governors and even the massive ODD in the US still has better outcomes. Overall, Sweden, without many of the factors present in the US, did not do that much better, and as noted, without the geronticide committed by Cuomo, et. al., they did significantly worse. And they’ve been fudging their numbers to boot.

[Grampa Dave]

The reopening of schools, colleges, restaurants and maybe even churches are being held up by CV19 higher rates with so called migrant workers, illegals, and ???? in their rigged testing.

Lab Coat Tyranny: California is using “public health” as a rationale to push progressive political goals.

This is a big cracking of the tyranny code being used to destroy our cities, counties and states.

Lab Coat Tyranny
California is using “public health” as a rationale to push progressive political goals.
Christopher F. Rufo

October 9, 2020 Covid-19 California Economy, finance, and budgets:

Public health authorities in California have unveiled a “Blueprint for a Safer Economy” that requires counties to meet new “health equity metrics” in order to emerge from the current Covid-19 lockdowns. It’s a broad experiment in social justice. Under the plan, counties must reduce “disparities in levels of transmission” in “low-income, Black, Latino, [and] Pacific Islander” communities before they can move forward with reopening. In effect, local businesses must remain closed until local bureaucrats are satisfied that ill-defined racial quotas have been met.

The underlying assumption of the blueprint is that race-based coronavirus disparities are the result of “systemic racism,” despite zero evidence that the state’s coronavirus policies have been discriminatory. The plan ignores potential differences in culture, behavior, and underlying health, resting instead on the premise that racism is the driving force behind every disparate outcome. The blueprint also subverts the democratic process. Unelected public health officials are restricting essential freedoms, including mobility, worship, and economic activity, without deliberation by the state legislature or the possibility of review or appeal.

Unfortunately, the California blueprint is just part of a broader pattern of state governments using public health as a rationale for seizing power. Throughout the pandemic, blue-state politicians have appealed to science as justification for long-term economic lockdowns, mask mandates, and other emergency measures, regardless of whether these policies have been sanctioned by state legislatures or voters. Science becomes the highest authority; citizens must obey.

Yet progressive leaders have been willing immediately to jettison science when it conflicts with their pre-existing political priorities. Earlier this summer, leading epidemiologists pilloried conservative lockdown protestors—declaring them a threat to public health—but then endorsed the much larger Black Lives Matter protests following the death of George Floyd in May. In short, they created a policy of “science for thee, but not for me.”

The disproportionate victims of any attempt to race-code the criteria for reopening in California will be the poor, the marginalized, and the nonwhite—the very people whom the equity policies are supposed to help. If, that is, Los Angeles County fails to reopen because it falls short of its “health equity metrics,” the Zoom class of intellectuals, public health officials, and progressive politicians will celebrate its own good intentions, even as bartenders, waitresses, taxi drivers, and small shopkeepers—many of them minorities—find themselves out of work.

The public should be on alert. If the progressive-scientific establishment can simply dictate policy outside the democratic process by appealing to “public health equity”—a vague concept that can extend to almost every facet of human life—voters may soon find themselves at the mercy of a new “soft totalitarianism,” as author Rod Dreher has characterized it. Citizens with a basic respect for freedom should resist this new encroachment. It degrades science, language, and democracy all at once, and acknowledges no natural limit to its power. Tyranny in a lab coat would still be tyranny.

Christopher F. Rufo is a contributing editor of City Journal and director of the Discovery Institute’s Center on Wealth & Poverty. He’s directed four documentaries for PBS, including his new film, America Lost, which tells the story of three “forgotten American cities.” Follow him on Facebook and Twitter.

https://www.city-journal.org/california-race-coding-criteria-for-reopening

[SeekAndFind]

RE: But New Zealand disagrees

Question: is New Zealand going to lockdown and close her borders indefinitely?

What will happen if they reopen? Will the virus then bypass them?

[DoodleBob]

Indeed, it already did, and they locked down again.

Oh, and their 2QGDP was down 12.2% vs the US' 9.6% contraction. more in this later.

[diatomite]

Sweden doesn’t have the black and Hispanic population that the US does. A lot of US deaths were concentrated in those groups.

[Songcraft]

bfl

[matt04]

All very good points the very telling aspect is the fact that not one government officials who supports these lockdowns primarily in democrat run states can say with any certainty what metrics or things must be met before the restrictions are Completely lifted. They’ve had months to come up with Definition of when the “crisis” Is over but have yet to give a single firm answer.

Is it a treatment? Is it a vaccine? Is it both? What if there’s never a vaccine that is totally effective? They have yet to answer a single one of those questions

[MAGAthon]

congrats Sweden and thank-you for charting your own course.

[SeekAndFind]

RE: Sweden doesn’t have the black and Hispanic population that the US does. A lot of US deaths were concentrated in those groups.

In fact, data shows that a lot of Sweden’s deaths were in their immigrant population (from the middle east ). I wonder why that is...

[TigersEye]

... and relied on social responsibility ...

IOWs the Swedish government treated their citizens like adults. They gave recommendations, not orders, and the citizens responded like adults and used common sense precautions where it applied. I'd bet on it!

[arthurus]

In California and New York they will attempt to keep the restrictions in place permanently until the people who don’t like it have either left the state or finally accepted it as the normality of life. Then they will start to institute permissions and licences to do the things that used to e just part of living. There will come internal passports for travel in the state, for instance, and registration of one’s location and travel plans, and always the fees.

[Pajamajan]

bttt

[arthurus]

And we know more and more about how to treat and new methods are spreading slowly against leftist opposition but spreading nevertheless. Candace Owens got the virus recently and was denied medication that she needed due to asthma complications because it was not PC to allow a nebulizer (which my wife got when she got WuHan pneumonia last March and which fixed her up in three days). It almost killed Candace.