This is embarrassing,
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New Zealand ends Covid-free run with two cases from UK
Pair drove nearly 650km to visit dying parent after being released early from quarantine but officials claim public were not at riskwww.theguardian.com
Yngve Gustafsson, professor of geriatric medicine at Umea University, noted that the proportion of older people in respiratory care nationally was lower than at the same time a year ago, despite people over 70 being the worst affected by covid-19. He expressed concern about the increasing practice of doctors recommending by telephone a “palliative cocktail” for sick older people in care homes.
“Older people are routinely being given morphine and midazolam, which are respiratory-inhibiting,” he told the Svenska Dagbladet newspaper,5 “It’s active euthanasia, to say the least.”
What did they expect? Do close off the country indefinitely?
Preventing travel from countries who fail to control the spread of the virus seems like a good plan. Im surprised NZ let anyone from the UK in.
And what of herd immunity? An ongoing nationwide study conducted by the Public Health Agency of Sweden on 20 May found that just 7.3% of Stockholm residents had developed covid-19 antibodies by late April—and that was the largest number of positive results found in the country.
“It means that just like other European cities in hard hit countries, it will take a long time before the majority of the population has gone through the infection and are likely immune,” said Tove Fall, professor in epidemiology at Uppsala University.
On 11 May, the World Health Organization said that global studies had found antibodies in only 1-10% of the global population, with similar findings emerging from Spain and France. The agency warned against any country depending on herd immunity as a strategy.
The bit in bold was my specific point. The government did not plan to lock down the public to gain a more biddable and subservient population... they kinda wildly careered into it.The government were and are spineless and let themselves be swayed by a hysterical and ill-informed public and press rather than building a convincing evidence-based and rational case that takes account of the global effects of the measure; SAGE never recommended anything near as emphatic as lockdown. It's not an evil plot but it will look like one in a few months, once we realise its effects and the carelessness and self-interest that lie behind it.
Re. cases, note that the press shifts their focus at will from deaths to cases to maximise the doom quotient eg. with Sweden, where cases have held steady or risen whilst deaths have continued to fall (themselves describing a curve that is mathematically similar to the UK's). If we experience spikes from the demonstrations, raves or beach parties, they will be of cases - not deaths - with the vast majority of them being asymptomatic or mild (as the people attending are young).