Can You Spot the Lockdowns?

Spot the lockdowns
Spot the lockdowns

Here are graphs of deaths attributed to Covid-19 in six countries. Some had strict lockdown measures; some didn’t. Can you tell which did and which didn’t?

If the lockdown, physical distancing and masking rules were effective, that should be apparent in the fatality graphs of the countries and regions most strictly enforcing them. But it’s not, is it?

Distracting us from that embarrassing fact, health agency bureaucrats, politicians and the major media scare the pants off people with every news bulletin pushing, “outbreaks,” “clusters,” “infections,” “super spreaders” and “cases, cases, cases”.

But a positive test result is not a “case”. A case implies someone who is ill. Yet most people who test positive are not ill. About 80% have very mild or no symptoms at all. The PCR test widely used does not prove an active infection. For example, the test can detect harmless virus debris long after the immune system has prevailed and the person is neither infected nor contagious. That person would not only be free of the virus, they would be immune. And yet because they tested positive they would be counted as a “case”. See this, this and this.

The only meaningful numbers are hospitalisations and deaths. When analysing various sized populations we can make a direct comparison by comparing deaths per million. Here are deaths per million attributed to Covid-19 for some countries and states at the time of writing:

Lockdown (Deaths per million)
New Jersey: 1848
New York: 1725
Massachusetts: 1427
Peru: 1030
Belgium: 925
Spain: 743
Brazil: 737
Bolivia: 736
USA: 694
United Kingdom: 658
Italy: 616
Australia: 35
Australia (Victoria): 99
Singapore: 5

No Lockdown (Deaths per million)
Sweden: 586
Belarus: 101
Japan: 14
South Korea: 9
Taiwan: 0.3

That’s interesting, isn’t it? Many places with the strictest lockdown, physical distancing and masking policies have the highest deaths per million.

Some will say I’ve cherry-picked. I say, choose countries at random yourself; cover the names and see if you can tell from their graphs which have harsh policies and which don’t.

Some will say the countries that responded most harshly did so because they had high fatality rates. Perhaps, but that begs the question: Why did they have high fatality rates in the first place while others did not? Isn’t it likely that the variation in fatality rates is due to something else entirely?

In my home state of Victoria, Australia official attention has been focussed with cult-like fervor on the virus threat with scant regard for collateral damage to citizens’ physical and mental health. We have endured some of the most draconian measures in the world. Yet Victoria has the highest number of deaths and the highest fatality rate per million attributed to Covid-19 in all of Australia.

At the time of writing, October 25, 2020, of the 905 Australians whose deaths are attributed to Covid-19, 817 (90%) died in Victoria. Of those, 653 (80%) died in nursing homes. Of those, 523 (80%) died since the introduction of the harshest measures on August 5, 2020.

Similar situations have played out around the world. While failing to focus attention and resources on protecting the frail and elderly – a disgraceful scandal for which those responsible should be held accountable – governments and major media continue to spread hardship and fear in the wider community with lunatic lockdowns, manic masking and incessant brainwashing about “cases, cases, cases.”

The bottom line is countries with far less draconian measures have faired as well or better than those whose governments are destroying lives and livelihoods, throwing tens of millions into destitution and poverty, and shamefully neglecting the most vulnerable.

The answers: 1. Sweden, 2. Italy, 3. Australia, 4 United Kingdom, 5. Belgium, 6. Japan.

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