It is a false choice that fear of COVID is amplified over data and science in August 2020.
In March 2020 one could say it was sensible to have some fear out of an abundance of caution, because the entire world was misled by the communist regime in China for months about human-to-human COVID transmission while they hoarded world PPE supplies. We understood little and knew less, so contraction and caution certainly saved many lives.
Early on, the U.S. experienced shocking death tolls in Washington State almost exclusively in long-term care facilities amongst the elderly. Since then, success in protecting those vulnerable elderly people has varied wildly from state to state. 42% of all U.S. COVID deaths of those elderly & vulnerable populations. On August 4th 2020 that would be approximately 66,000 out of 157,000.
The front page Register article on Aug. 4, 2020, said “herd immunity not the way to fight COVID.” I personally have never heard anyone advocate for herd immunity as a way to fight COVID.
The article goes on to take the country of Sweden to task, by comparison with it’s neighbor Norway. The Swedish constitution states that the economy cannot be controlled by the national government for any reason except being in a war. One of my many cousins in Sweden says almost 10% of the whole Swedish population (1 million) goes skiing in February in the Alps, and various ski destinations in southern Europe. The population of Norway stays in Norway for ski season. Each country was seeded with COVID much differently. Half of Sweden’s covid deaths were in long term care facilities, while the only change from normal Swedish life was high schoolers and above did distance learning in the spring. No lockdowns.
First quarter GDP of Sweden was up .01% and second quarter GDP was down 8.2% which is a smaller drop than the rest of Europe. A CNBC article from August 5 states that Sweden looks to have better GDP numbers than all it’s neighbors for the rest of 2020. The Aug 4, Register article stated “Sweden’s economy tanked out” and the opposite is true in comparison to the rest of Europe. Right now cases, hospitalizations and deaths have plummeted in Sweden. On Aug. 5, the death rate was .64/million in comparison to 5.5/million on May 29th. Don’t take my word for it, look it up yourself.
Protect the elderly and vulnerable. Be thoughtful, supportive and observant and we will get through the challenges COVID presents. No one is citing the deaths from fear, and despair yet, but they are just as real as COVID deaths.
