Two self-evident lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic

Dr. Halvor Næss

It is now more than three years since the covid-19 pandemic started, and two almost self-evident statements summarize the most important lessons learned.

1. Without the draconian handling of the authorities, the pandemic would have passed under the radar for most people.
2. Negative consequences such as bankruptcies, inflation, lack of schooling, school refusal and depression are solely due to the government's handling of the pandemic and not the Corona virus.

The justification for the first claim is that if the authorities had not shut down and established a test regime with quarantine of healthy people, the mass media had refrained from provoking fear in the population with war headlines and NRK had refrained from listing the number of infected and dead many times a day, most people would not have known that a respiratory pandemic with a new virus was sweeping through the population. Most of us have had Covid both once and twice. Covid causes flu-like symptoms and is a mild illness for most people. We are used to such respiratory infections.

Covid has a slightly higher mortality rate than ordinary flu, but very few people know anyone who has died from Covid. I've asked many people and they all say no. This is consistent with the fact that only one in a thousand infected people die from Covid, according to the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. Empirical studies show that the authorities' handling had little or no effect on infection or death. It is therefore self-evident that without the authorities' handling and the mass media's war headlines, most people would not have experienced the pandemic like anything other than what they are used to during flu seasons.

The reason for the second claim is that for most people, Covid is a mild flu-like illness lasting a few days. The vast majority of people who die are over 70 years old or have complicated illnesses. This means that it is not the able-bodied part of the population that dies. The consequences of the virus itself are therefore no worse than after a slightly harsh flu season. Instead, we have experienced bankruptcies, an economic downturn, lack of schooling, etc. which can only be explained by the authorities' draconian handling in the form of closures of businesses and schools, border closures, quarantine of healthy people, etc.

The claims may not have been self-evident in March 2020, but they were plausible. Even then, figures indicated that the mortality rate was low and that it was primarily the elderly who died. Guidelines for dealing with respiratory pandemics before March 2020 did not recommend shutting down businesses or schools. Nor were border closures or quarantine of healthy people recommended. On the contrary, the recommendations were that life should go on as normal precisely to prevent the negative consequences we are now experiencing as a result of the authorities' response.

A little reflection should suffice to reassure most people that the above statements are self-evident. You would have to be an "expert" blinded by computer models not to see that the authorities' handling of the situation has been a long series of errors and has led to serious consequences for the population. The handling shows how much damage the authorities can inflict on a population.

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Source: steigan.no. Translation with : DeepL.com. Image: © istockphoto.com
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