Courtney Kirchoff - April 07, 2020 at 05:32PM
Those of us who mocked the WuHuFlu were called any number of things, including racists and haters of the elderly. But one country decided to flip two pale middle fingers to the social distancing shenanigans in reaction to the Kung Flu: Sweden. It didn’t shut down the economy. Didn’t force people into isolation or “sheltering in place.” It didn’t even close its borders. Instead, it had the at risk groups who are always affected by the flu season, to quarantine themselves. Why am I bringing this up? The experts are dialing back their models of doom and gloom as this COVID-19 proves itself to be a dud. There’a whole lot of face-saving going on as unemployment numbers surge past previous records. Now the social-distancing encouragers are trying to claim victory saying that yes, indeed, their calls for the social distancing worked! But no, not the case, and we should be wary to embrace such totalitarian methods in the future. Let’s look at Sweden and how they handled the pandemic.
From National Review:
Sweden has courageously decided not to endorse a harsh quarantine, and consequently it hasn’t forced its residents into lockdown. “The strategy in Sweden is to focus on social distancing among the known risk groups, like the elderly. We try to use evidence-based measurements,” Emma Frans, a doctor in epidemiology at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute, told Euronews. “We try to adjust everyday life. The Swedish plan is to implement measurements that you can practice for a long time.”
It almost sounds like personal responsibility. That used to be the tenet conservatives lived by until enough people got scared of a cough and we tanked a global economy.
No, I’m not going to apologize for being a little bit on the upset side of the emotional spectrum for the global economy going into quarantine over a disease with a fatality rate that’s probably far less than the COMMON FLU!
Because meanwhile, while people are showing off how much they care by making their own masks from their undergarments, millions of Americans are without work or have lost their businesses. Even healthcare workers have been laid off, despite what we were all told would be a surge in hospitalizations over a cough.
If social isolation worked, wouldn’t Sweden, a Nordic country of 10.1 million people, be seeing the number of COVID-19 cases skyrocket into the tens of thousands, blowing past the numbers in Italy or New York City? As of today, there are 401 reported COVID-19 deaths in Sweden.
But wait, because the question everyone should be asking about the COVID cough is, how many HEALTHY people are croaking? So far, it seems like the health-compromised are hardest hit. Right?
The really good news is that in Sweden’s ICU census, which is updated every 30 minutes nationwide, admissions to every ICU in the country are flat or declining, and they have been for a week. As of this writing (based on currently available data), most of Sweden’s ICU cases today are elderly, and 77 percent have underlying conditions such as heart disease, respiratory disease, kidney disease, and diabetes. Moreover, there hasn’t been a single pediatric ICU case or death in Sweden — so much for the benefits of shutting down schools everywhere else. There are only 25 COVID-19 ICU admissions among all Swedes under the age of 30.
Here’s what’s frustrating: the above is good news. But a lot of people, I’ve noticed, take it as bad news. They’re almost hopeful Sweden will see a spike in death rates. They want Sweden to get hit with a wave of bad news just so the rest of the countries that shut everything down don’t look foolish? That’s my working theory.
Let’s zoom out for a second and examine the big picture. Millions of Americans (let’s just focus on America right now), voluntarily gave up their freedom to stop what they were told was a terrible disease. With almost no questions asked. State governors shut down entire industries and gave instructions on what businesses could remain open and what were “non-essential.” People were advised if not ordered to stay in their homes or else. People who violated stay at home decrees were arrested. Criminals were freed from prisons. Businesses went under, people lost their jobs, and the economic fallout will reach far beyond the short term losses here.
Again, we’re looking at the big picture. Forget COVID-19 for a second. America, home of the “free,” took orders from our elected officials and shut down our entire way of life for three weeks. What happens when the government says something else is a national emergency? Like, I dunno, global warming? AOC says we all gonna die in 12ish years. Greta Thunberg believes we’re destroying our planet and maybe doing it on purpose. What’s to stop state governors from saying that in order to save the planet, certain businesses are “non-essential” and that some people should just stay home to spare the air? They tried it out on us already, and if it was a test, yikes. Related OPINION: Coronavirus Panic is a Trojan Horse for Socialism.
You may say I’m paranoid, but look at what we’re doing right now for a flu that’s proving far less deadly than even the most conservative models predicted.
The IMHE models of Wuhan coronavirus hospitalizations in the U.S. are complete garbage. How bad are they? Compare the projections from their April 1 and April 7 models to the reality on the ground. Even their revisions don't come close to approximating reality. pic.twitter.com/eayWmqUXwB
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) April 7, 2020
So yes, what Sweden did, or maybe didn’t do, is a good thing and we should pay attention to what happens there for the future of our republic and rights as Americans. If you think the experts aren’t going to run victory laps over social distancing, think again.
Set aside the past three weeks. It’s over and done, we can’t go back. We need to make sure we learn from our history so we don’t repeat it, and Sweden’s reaction to this can save us from making a terrible mistake in the future.
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