Covid 19 right now ! And post covid 19

[CharlesHarris]

Opinion piece in the local newspaper has food for thought. Comments?

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Mature decisions from leaders are what the people need in times of crisis.

From the outset of the coronavirus pandemic, cooler heads were pointing to facts about the fast spread of the disease, low impact on healthy people and large numbers of asymptomatic cases. The facts were buried by national and international media hungry for a crisis to promote.

Computer programs predicting millions of dead were paraded as proven fact. Daily mortality totals were focused on with no reference to similar totals from previous flu pandemics, some of which were worse. In 1957 160,000 died in the United States, in 1968 100,000 died, no lockdown was even suggested, it was just the flu.

Countries with disorganized heath care systems and no or late social distancing had huge problems. Nursing homes and cruise ships, primarily vulnerable people, were used as examples of what was in store for the entire United States. Strict shelter in place orders, suited to a serious epidemic were foisted on a population terrorized by media exaggeration. The initial response may have been reasonable because of uncertainty about the infection. However, within two weeks the facts were confirmed, this was just a bad flu. This was when all shelter in place orders should have been cancelled.

In Sweden, the government decided to keep their economy open and go about business as usual, with some intelligent precautionary changes. They encouraged people to voluntarily work at home and asked vulnerable citizens to isolate at home. They limited gatherings to less than 50 people and suggested restaurants offer service on alternate tables. The country practiced consensual social distancing. Note: consensual, voluntary, asked and suggested, the Swedish leaders treated their citizens as ADULTS, no threats of arrest, fines, or promoting snitching by neighbors. The police were not arresting people for non-crimes. The result? A flattening of the curve, no run on ventilators or ICU beds, and no crushing economic blow to families and small business. More importantly, no artificial division of society into “essential” and “unessential”. In a functional society there are no “unessential” jobs.

Swedish officials suffered harsh criticism and condemnation from the World Health Organization, the news media, politicians and some medical experts. Predictions of millions of Swedish dead, overloaded hospitals and a national catastrophe were the hopes of tyrants wanting to validate their draconian edicts. The Swedish leaders stood up strong for their people and led the way with smart choices and as a result they are healthier both physically, and economically than other nations in Europe and the United States. Sweden has disappeared from the national news.

The same script has played out again in the United States when some state governors looked at the facts and decided shelter in place was not needed and harmful overall. Vile dialogues which painted them as stupid purveyors of death were continuous. Every person with an opposite opinion was offered a free seat on national news programs which ran all day long. Death totals, which always increase, were paraded with no mention that daily deaths were decreasing. Weeks later the results are even apparent to a casual observer, the smart governors were correct. There are no apologies on the news programs.

Instead we now have computer predictions of a second wave of infections in the Fall. We are told this will require a return to general quarantine and another lock-down. The news media are looking for any hint of increased infections. These are sure to come because we are releasing many susceptible people from lock-down. There will be deafening clamor from the media and politicians to reinstitute and extend crushing restrictions. This will be just in time to further destroy the economy before the elections.

The United States is being subjected to a continuing political disaster with far reaching economic consequences. We are now in a full-blown Depression being trillions more in debt, with tens of millions of people out of work, thousands of businesses which will never reopen. It will take decades to recover from the damage this contrived stupidity of social engineering has caused.

The most important question is what we are going to do when the next pandemic occurs, as they do about every 10 years.

Will we ever learn?