The article was totally in keeping with what many have been saying for the past 2 1/2 years. That the response to COVID-19 was unprecedented, not in keeping with all the hard documented lessons learned from previous pandemics. In addition, it was both dangerous and deadly.
“Lockdown” is a new word in the language of pandemic response. It was invented after the Chinese response in Wuhan at the start of the pandemic and it became the norm for the world. Media and Medical Officers of Health became transfixed with this brutal, authoritarian government response.
Lockdowns are, in fact, the use of Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions (NPIs), sometimes called Non-Pharmaceutical Measures. There are fifteen NPIs which have been studied and documented with the latest complete summary in a WHO document dated September 2019, three months before the SARS CoV-2 virus was announced.
The fifteen NPIs are:
- Hand hygiene
- Respiratory etiquette
- Isolation of sick individuals
- Other environmental measures
- Surface and object cleaning
- Face masks
- Avoiding crowds
- Travel advice
- Contact tracing
- Quarantine of exposed individuals
- Workplace closures
- School closures
- Entry and exit screening
- Internal travel restrictions
- Border closures
Many research studies have shown that only the first three have some affect in helping to diminish the transmission of viruses like the SARS CoV-2.
Again, decades of peer reviewed studies have shown that contact tracing, quarantine of exposed individuals, closure of workplaces and schools, internal travel restrictions, and border closures had almost no effect. That is why in the pre-2020 provincial and federal pandemic plans, these NPIs were discounted. Nevertheless, in the COVIC pandemic, they were enforced.
Other actions are potentially useful. The wearing of face masks is effective in hospital settings, when the right type of mask, made of the correct material, is worn for limited times to exacting standards. In all other cases masks were found to be of little effect in limiting the transmission of the COVID virus. That is why Dr. Anders Tegnell who led the pandemic response team in Sweden, strongly and repeatedly recommended against using masks by the general public.
The use of some NPIs comes with dangerous and deadly collateral effects. The worst is the closure of schools which effectively crushed the education and social development of children – which will affect them throughout their lives. The use of some NPIs will affect Canadians for a generation. As stated by Professor Douglas Allen, of Simon Fraser University, “It is possible that lockdowns will go down as one of the greatest peacetime policy failures in Canada’s history.”
In Canada, devastating effects have been documented in a number of areas:
- Individual mental health;
- Societal health;
- Our children’s socialization and education;
- Severe health effects for people with diabetes, heart diseases, cancer, and dementia;
- Economic debt which has damaged both individuals and governments viability;
- Industry and businesses have been damaged; and
- The confidence Canadians have in our democracies, the rule of law, and individual rights and freedoms.
What is not discussed in detail in the Tierney article is that many experts have been trying, at least since March 2020, to have government and medical officials recognize that their response was dangerous and deadly. These contrary-minded experts have been ignored and censored by our governmental officials, the Medical Officers of Health (MOH), and by the media.
And yet the evidence, wave after wave, was obvious. Countries like Sweden and various states in the USA (like Florida) have managed the COVID-19 pandemic better than others that implemented severe “lockdowns.” In addition, these same “non-lockdown” jurisdictions have not suffered the massive collateral damage experienced in “lockdown” jurisdictions.
One must note that with the Mass Formation belief (a form of crowd madness) in “lockdowns” that has been inflicted on the public by our government, the damage will continue until the NPI-based response is reversed.
A government in a democracy is almost powerless in enforcing rules if the people do not have the will to follow those orders. If draconian Public Health Orders are implemented again, the public must not comply with them. The public, by their actions, must just say “no!” It starts by simply not wearing masks. Parents must send children to school, owners must not close their business, insane social distancing rules must be ignored.
As citizens of a democracy, we must never follow these insane policies again. And Canadians need to hold their elected officials accountable for their deadly, criminally negligent response to the COVID pandemic.
As stated by John Tierney: “It was bad enough that Dr. Fauci, the CDC and the WHO ignored the best scientific advice at the start of this pandemic. It’s sociopathic for them to promote a worse catastrophe for future outbreaks.”
David Redman had a distinguished military career before becoming the head of the Alberta Emergency Management Agency in 2004 and led the provincial response to the devastating floods of June 2005. He also led the team in the development of the 2005 Provincial Pandemic Influenza Plan. He retired in 2013. This article was first published HERE.
4 comments:
Spot on! It's absolutely not logical that sitting down one minute with a mask on and standing up the next sans mask could make a difference so why do it? I don't wear a mask on most occasions, only in one or two places where the rules seem rigid but even these will disappear as Summer arrives. We need an overhaul of the New Zealand health system and this overhaul needs to be based on need not race. People who have missed out on vital healthcare because of the draconian rules regarding "covid" should be a priority in the months ahead. The businesses are probably concerned about heavy fines for non-compliance so the directive to stop all this nonsense needs to come from the top.
I’m a Covid-19 vaccinator. At an outreach clinic at a local hospital here in regional Australia, I noted to a doctor that I had just vaccinated, that 70% of staff (from all sorts of roles) had not had Covid . He replied that he thought it was down to attitude. Basically, if you wore a mask, properly, ie fitted well, kept your distance and washed your hands, your chances of getting Covid were markedly reduced. We see mask zealots wearing them outside or in large indoor areas where good ventilation means that Covid spread is very unlikely and think they’re paranoid and sort of ridiculous but we also see people wearing masks half loose with it barely covering their mouth, let alone nose, and think their mask wearing is ineffective and just done this way to make the point that they’re not, not, not giving in to the govt. What is apparent is that making masks a political point rather than a health issue has skewed what is an extremely effective tool, when used correctly in the right setting. But if your attitude is against them, then you will make sure they don’t work. This last year has certainly been an eye opener in lack of common sense at both ends of the political spectrum and the increasing polarisation of peoples views on every aspect of Covid response. I’m somewhere in the middle of all opinions. Make us do what you think will work, but for god’s sake, please make it sensible and doable.
Despite this sensible advice, based on actual research, everything I see suggests that most Kiwis would do exactly what this government told them regarding lockdowns. And take pride in the fact, at the same time!!
The sheep really should be the national animal of New Zealand. Huddle together, panic easily, act without thinking....and jump when the bitch barks!
Indeed, as soon as I saw government-funded "experts" advocating the wearing of masks I had my doubts. Soon after being vaccinated (because it was mandated by the owners of our retirement village) and also just a few days after having hip-replacement surgery, I experienced a distressing night-long chest pain and visited my doctor. She carried out a cardiogram and said that she believed I had NOT had a heart attack (I am a healthy 84-year old) but that I should go to hospital for a repeat of the cardiogram. There the first doctor I saw said that I HAD had a heart attack and needed to be kept in for observation. Eventually I found myself in an operating theatre, and on recovery the lead-docter stated that I had NOT had a heart attack and that there was no narrowing of my arteries at all. So 6 doctors expressed an opinion, of whom 3 said I HAD had a heart attack whilst 3 said I had NOT. The result of this is that I have had no further chest pain, and put this unfortunate experience down to the after-effect of a forced vaccination which subsequent comment suggests was the experience of many people based on political considerations of government-funded "experts". I hold that Fauci man in his white coat, and others such as Baker lauded by our Marxist Prime Minister, as being directly repsonsible for shockingly unscientific judgements based on their own financial well-being!
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