Posted on 02/22/2022 4:21:03 AM PST by Kaslin
What if two years ago, when COVID-19 first hit these shores, our politicians hadn't panicked?
What if the government did what it has done every time we were confronted with a deadly virus, such as the Spanish flu or polio? Instead of locking down our schools, churches and businesses, the government could have simply informed citizens of the risks of getting sick and urged people to be extra careful about hygiene, stay out of crowded places and protect the vulnerable.
It turns out there was one country that mostly rejected lockdowns and let life go on as normal as possible under dire circumstances. That country was Sweden.
There were some restrictions and temporary lockdowns, but they were minimal.
The hero of this story is Anders Tegnell, Sweden's chief epidemiologist. He was Sweden's Anthony Fauci, but unlike the now-widely discredited Fauci, Tegnell eschewed lockdowns. The international media pilloried him for not following "the science." At first, it seemed the Swedish live-and-let-live strategy was a miserable failure. Death rates soared higher than in other European nations.
But to their credit, the Swedes ignored the "mad modelers" such as Britain's Imperial College team, which predicted multiple times that the number of deaths around the world would be more than actually occurred.
Sweden made some mistakes at the beginning. Like many states in the United States, the Swedes failed to protect elderly nursing home residents adequately, which was a significant reason that deaths in Sweden were higher than in neighboring Norway or Denmark. But Tegnell argued that the collateral damage of lockdowns would outweigh what good they do on a society-wide basis. He was proven right.
Two years later, Sweden's COVID-19 death rate is 1,614 per million people -- much lower than Britain (2,335) or the U.S. (2,836), which both had much more stringent lockdowns.
Sweden appears to have achieved herd immunity much more swiftly and thoroughly than other nations. Deaths were higher at the start of the pandemic but fell much lower than other lockdown nations in succeeding months.
What is clear today is that the Swedes saved their economy. This year, it's projected to be 5% larger than before the pandemic, compared to a 2% gain for Germany and a 1% gain for Britain. Moreover, the extra debt Sweden has had to take on is a fraction of that of lockdown countries. So it will not have to spend decades paying for the costs of lockdowns.
Swedish schools stayed open with no face masks. Test scores are up, and there is no talk in Sweden about "lost" years of education.
What is sadly ironic about the Sweden story is this should have been the U.S. We're the land of the free, not Sweden. We are the nation of rugged individualism, not Sweden, with its more socialist economy and collectivist mindset. We have more solid constitutional protections to guarantee citizen rights against heavy-handed government.
But the politicians from local health officials and mayors all the way up to the top federal medical experts and lawmakers opted for deadly decisions to shut down the engines of our economy and lock people in their homes. Those policies did irreparable harm that will be felt for many years to come. Those who supported this great mistake need to be held accountable.
Sweden's successful response strategy reminds us that we must never again shut down our businesses and schools. I just pray we have all learned that enduring lesson before another virus wave arrives.
Per the article
“What is sadly ironic about the Sweden story is this should have been the U.S. We’re the land of the free, not Sweden. We are the nation of rugged individualism, not Sweden, with its more socialist economy and collectivist mindset. We have more solid constitutional protections to guarantee citizen rights against heavy-handed government.”
There was no panic. It was all planned. They had to make everyone think that Covid-19 was ebola in order to justify the cheat-by-mail-in ballots that gave the Steal to the Vegetable.
And none of it would have happened without the aid of RINO-controlled state legislatures. Remember that when voting in the primaries.
The Fauci’s of the world will point to Singapore as the model...look how few 90 year olds they killed compared to Sweden, Oblivious to the fact they created a generation of mal adjusted kids and the 2 years of lockdowns that ruined their economy.
Agree. Deliberate and well planned.
The demonic grip of the American media over this nation must be broken before we have any chance of success again.
To be fair, in the end they were injecting everyone with the same crap from us, and had to stop when they realized they were killing kids.
When your entire country is 10 million people, there ain’t a whole lot of direction your “economy” can go, either.
Viva Frei getting nearly 50K people on Rumble watching him watch the Canadian Parliment last night, shows the end of the MSM is rapidly approaching, way faster than they can imagine.
The lockdowns and destruction of the economy were not about the pandemic. They were about getting rid of President Trump.
The left could not have rigged the election without COVID19. The Biden campaign said they could not have won without COVID19.
I certainly hope so. COVID 19 has been used to destroy Canadian democracy as well.
Moore is wrong, though. The politicians didn’t panic. The population did — and the politicians followed suit.
This website — of all places — lost a lot of credibility back in March 2020 when I saw how many people were willing to get on here and scold me for refusing to shut down my business and hide under my bed. We are now more than 700 days into “two weeks to flatten the curve,” and a lot of those cowardly frauds are still here.
“We have more solid constitutional protections to guarantee citizen rights against heavy-handed government.”
ONLY when Democrats aren’t in power. I wish people could understand that a piece of paper is WORTHLESS unless it is respected. Even Mark Levin thinks that we can simply re-write our piece of power and then then Democrats will respect it. He’s wasting his time.
Trump was held blackmailed by Fauci, Birx, Collins and the CDC who threatened to quit if one of them was fired. Imagine them blasting Trump everyday on the MSM. Also, I think he was frightened by the inflated estimate of 2 million deaths without mitigation. On the bright side, Trump delegated policy to the governors so we have clear evidence that mitigation efforts had no effect on the spread of the virus and that negative side effects were too high a price to pay.
It’s too bad that he didn’t take a look at Sweden’s approach. We would all be better without the mandates and shutdowns.
Trump was held blackmailed by Fauci, Birx, Collins and the CDC who threatened to quit if one of them was fired. Imagine them blasting Trump everyday on the MSM. Also, I think he was frightened by the inflated estimate of 2 million deaths without mitigation. On the bright side, Trump delegated policy to the governors so we have clear evidence that mitigation efforts had no effect on the spread of the virus and that negative side effects were too high a price to pay.
It’s too bad that he didn’t take a look at Sweden’s approach. We would all be better without the mandates and shutdowns.
.
It’s not called the UNI-PARTY without reason
.
They will be shutting down the alternate media soon, or if you don’t praise Dear Leader, they will take your bank account. It is coming here and the Dem Marxists will slip it into a bill. The Rino’s will be happy to vote for it, and the GOP will write a sternly worded leader. The Conservatives in Chinada folded with faux fight (per Dave ie Viva Frei).
Many of them were longtime FReepers too - not suspiciously new people showing up to troll or sidetrack discussions.
I was surprised as well.
Trump did not have the power to fire any of them.
“it will not have to spend decades paying for the costs of lockdowns.” Like we plan on paying for it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.