Posted on 08/10/2020 6:46:08 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Seemingly a lifetime ago, the Democrat political class announced a never-before-tried approach to deal with a new infectious disease: America should briefly lock itself down, or as much of America as possible, to spare us the horrors of the next plague. At the same time, the Swedes looked at the same disease, said “meh,” and proceeded to act normally. The difference in outcomes is striking.
In March, we first heard the concept of “bending the curve” for the Wuhan virus. The Democrat scientific and political classes had a novel proposal: Because there was a risk that hospitals could be overrun, we would shut America down for two weeks so that hospitals could line up their resources.
That was half a year ago. Once the lockdown was in place, blue state governors abandoned the concept of “bending the curve” and, instead, embraced the illusory idea of zero cases. Everything they’ve done since then has been with the unstated premise that they could bring infections down to zero.
Of course, that’s not what’s happened. The moment these states lift the lockdown even slightly, the infections rise again as people who haven’t already had the virus catch it for the first time. The governors (and the various local governments within the blue states) then panic and re-lock their state. Their economies are cratering, their education system is collapsing, and people are getting deeply depressed.
The only exception to this lockdown dance in the blue states has been Black Lives Matter and Antifa. Those groups are free to protest, riot, and roam at will. Thus, even as blue state governors have locked down constitutionally protected religious services, they won’t say a word against tens, hundreds, and thousands of people gathering together in orgies of unconstitutional violence.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Unlike other countries, Sweden never went in to complete lockdown. Non-essential businesses have remained open, people have continued to go to cafés and restaurants, children have remained in school, and very few people have bothered with face masks in public.
Admittedly, the virus walloped Sweden in March. The people who showed up in the ER, no matter the reason they appeared (stomach aches, nosebleeds, etc.), tested positive for the virus. Only a few months later, though, and everything has changed: No one is showing up in his ER with a positive test result. Sweden has gone from 100 deaths per day out of a population of 10 million to 5 deaths per day and dropping steadily.
There’s a dose of hard realism in there too, which is that many of those who died were bound to die soon anyway:
In total covid has killed under 6,000 people in a country of ten million. A country with an annual death rate of around 100,000 people. Considering that 70% of those who have died of covid are over 80 years old, quite a few of those 6,000 would have died this year anyway. That makes covid a mere blip in terms of its effect on mortality.
That sounds cold, but at least those who died in Sweden didn’t have their governors herd them into old age homes that functioned like slaughterhouses, where they died alone, without family or friends nearby.
Essentially, Sweden looked at its choices: Shut down the whole country and hope for a vaccination that may never come or may not be effective. Meanwhile, the economy will collapse and people’s lives will be destroyed. Alternatively, recognize that the Wuhan virus is not the Black Death and get on with life.
Here is a chance to educate yourself.
Don’t let your pride stop you from reading.
I don’t know what to believe about numbers. Are the refugee no-go zones reporting accurately?
The headline and the story miss the point.
Brave Sir Robin wants you to Run away!!! Run away!!!! COVID!!!! Hide in your basement!!!! Demand to vote by mail!!!!!
In America we are big fat, diabetic animals who do not follow the simplest rules. I have to laugh when people compare Sweden to the US.
Take a look around yourself: Are we tall, blonde, and fit?
Are we happy isolating our grandparents? Folks on FR were suggesting we should open up nursing homes because they “missed” their parents.
The US response to Covid has been a clown show at best.
My province reopened at the end of May. No mask requirements except for workers at hospitals, stores and restaurants. A few stores have required customers to wear masks but most haven’t. The economy bounced back fairly quickly and we avoided total economic devastation. I do fear an overreaction if we get hit with a wave this fall. You cannot totally stop a virus and the cost of trying is far too high. Sweden (for all their stupidity on muslim immigration) made the right decision.
We also flattened the curve. Long ago.
Our problem is that the goalposts have been moved to “nobody dies or gets sick”.
I still would not write off a midwest white woman, either halfwit Whitman or Klobuchar. He already owns the black vote and a black woman would not be extending the vote beyond that. With a midwest white woman, he still gets to pander to the much larger white woman vote and he has a chance of picking up a midwest battleground state or two.
Trump faced a ‘damned if you, damned if you don’t’ decision.
We have 165,000 deaths(granted many are suspect) with the restrictions. Whatever the number would have been if we did as Sweden did, it would have been hung around Trump’s neck every second of every day and probably cost him the election.
If it wasn’t an election year Trump could have played it different. But then again, if it wasn’t an election year, this virus probably never would have showed up.
No one has the balls to say that America is full of really unhealthy people, mainly due to OBESITY and all the diseases it creates.
It also allows an impaired Joe to have an excuse not to talk in public, because if he does, even an idiot can see he's smarter than Joe.
Exactly. This virus LOVES fat people and elderly in poor health. We are the fattest nation on this planet. It’s no wonder why countries like India and Africa haven’t had the problems we are facing.
I’ve managed to drop 20 lbs. during the pandemic.
How?
When the lockdowns started I knew that my physical activity was going to be limited (at least during the early foul weather portion of this). So I drastically reduced my caloric intake, knowing that when this was over I did not want to emerge weighing 325 lbs. I also wanted to stretch my groceries and spend as little time as possible in supermarkets dealing with panicking idiots in masks.
People who have seen me noticed the change and asked what my secret is and I had to tell them “uhhhh.......eating less.”
Been praising Sweden’s general approach and suggesting it as the gold standard the US should have been following since the start of this. The only thing they did poorly (which they themselves admit) was failing to protect the elderly and infirmed in the long term care facilities. Had they done better in that one area, their death rate would not only be better than Italy’s, it would be better than a whole lot of other countries as well.
Keep the businesses open and have them modify their practices to minimize the spread so the hospitals are not overwhelmed. Worked fine there and it could work fine here too.
“Stupid is as stupid does” liberally applied on a national scale.
Dumbed down America is infested with marxists in high and trusted places.
Between depression from what has been going on this year, plus my spin studio and local pool being closed, plus eating and drinking too much, I've gained about 12 to 15 lbs.
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.