Are government lockdowns the best option to keep a population healthy?
According to https://ncov2019.live/data, which is updated every minute, the most current (as of this writing) number of deaths from coronavirus in Denmark and Sweden are 77 and 146, respectively. The population of Denmark (5.6 million) is exactly half of Sweden's (10.12 million) and as you can see below, Sweden has a comparable Covid-19 death rate to that of Denmark:
Denmark: 0.00001375
Sweden: 0.00001443
These numbers aren't too surprising until you realize that while Denmark is on a coronavirus lockdown, Sweden is not.
It makes you wonder what the benefit of going on lockdown actually is?
But we can clearly see what the cost is: Denmark's jobless claims have increased by 43,000 in the last month. That's not healthy, either. Stress, depression, poor nutrition, and higher crime rates can quickly result.
India's lockdown in Delhi caused many workers and poor families to literally walk back home to their villages. Epidemiologists like Dr John Ioannidis, professor of epidemiology and population health at Stanford University, say young children are at very low risk of the virus. But these kids are now having to walk miles with their families back to these villages putting them at greater risk of injury and other illness.
And the most confusing thing I've seen: despite the prevalence of lockdowns among countries, cities, and retirement homes... the government is releasing prisoners rather than keeping them on lockdown.
The people who are critical of government lockdowns aren't callous assholes who want people to die. But they do have more faith in the ability of individuals to make decisions in their own best interest. The elderly, who are most at risk, are making those decisions to self-quarantine. Many others are, as well, who might be more susceptible to complications.
But even here in my locked-down area of Denver, there are quite a few people out there still working essential jobs. And make no mistake: essential workers violate the spirit of a lockdown. These aren't people who are indifferent to the health of the elderly or immuno-compromised. In fact, if these essential workers didn't go in each day, we would have a complete collapse of society with no supplies and a desperate populace.
If Sweden can carry on like rational adults, and with comparable results regarding infection and mortality rates, maybe we can, too, without a nanny state telling us what's best for us to do.
Hello @geke !
Have you accessed your HIVE account yet? I don't see a copy of this post over there.
I won't have much presence over here on Steemit anymore, but there are some people who may not be aware of all the drama that went done and forced us former Steemians to fork to a new chain.
https://hive.blog/@geke
... or the new version of SteemPeak ...
https://peakd.com/@geke
Hi cc! No I haven't accessed that yet. Thanks for the info -- I'll look it over and figure this out!
Great. I wanted to make sure that you knew.
Justin Sun has gone completely INSANE!
There are many people that he has completely banned from Steem already, and their history of posts can no longer be seen even on SteemPeak anymore because of how he changed the alogorithms.
I am powering down all of my Steem and getting the hell out, but I will still be quickly using up all of my voting power as long as I have it.
It looks like the price of Steem may be almost zero within another 12 weeks, after the majority of Steem has been powered down and sold.
Dear @geke, not sure how active you still are on Steemit, but I recently just added some of your fine work (Venn diagrams related to Big Pharma) to my latest exposé, specifically to Part 4 - Big Pharma. I think this makes a nice supplement that can increase some exposure to your work, even though my view counts are awfully low. At the very least, it helps to document these machinations between Big Pharma corporations and government. So, thanks for all that hard work!
Peace.
P.S.: If ever you have a Venn for Johnson & Johnson (or other big pharma), pls let me know your links and I can add them.