At least two national leaders are successfully dealing with the coronavirus without closing down the country’s economy and forcing people to stay at home.
In Sweden, families can be seen eating on benches beneath the giant statue of the Viking God Thor in Stockholm’s Mariatorget Square.
Nightclubs are open, with gatherings allowed up to 50 people. While citizens are adopting practical ways to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, all actions are voluntary.
It is reported that citizens are avoiding non-essential travel and are maintaining more distance than normal from others, but they are out and about, and businesses have not been forced to shut down.
Roads are much quieter and the country’s public transport is at 50 percent of normal capacity. Previously having been ahead of the curve in establishing remote working opportunities for the 21st century, polls reveal that almost half of the country is working remotely from home.
The result: in a country of some 10 million people, less than 1,000 have died from COVID-19 (0.008 percent).
In Belarus, there are no lockdown orders. The country’s two most popular sports, soccer and hockey, are being played on fields and ice rinks.
The country’s businesses and schools are operating. On 27 March, President Aleksander Lukashenko stated that in other countries, the cost of the lockdowns to deal with coronavirus outweigh their benefits. Also, he emphasized the importance of putting in extra protection for the elderly who are most at risk.
Appearing at a hockey game in full athletic attire, the president stated the best medicine to ward off the coronavirus was playing sports, drinking vodka (except at work), and taking a couple of saunas each week. He referred to the extreme lockdowns in almost 100 countries as “frenzy and psychosis.”
While many mainstream media have referred to the Belarus strategy as “risky,” in a country of some 9,500,000 people, as of last Saturday, 23 people had died from coronavirus (0.0002 percent).
TRENDPOST: Everywhere around the world, people are giving into fear-induced, stay-at-home lockdown orders from their mayors, governors, and national leaders. People are scared to even go shopping, despite mounting evidence that it’s safe.
Dr. Hendrick Streeck, professor of virology at the University of Bonn, stated research shows “no transmission of the virus in supermarkets, restaurants or hairdressers has been proven.” He also noted that there was no evidence of living viruses on surfaces such as door handles or phones.
Yet, the people salute their leaders and accept what they are told. While Mervyn King, the former governor of the Bank of England, has warned that continued lockdown could result in a “rebellion in the UK if enforced too long,” there are few signs.
One of the only successful protests thus far was in Baltimore where residents challenged the city’s surveillance program, which included police recording people’s movements from drones.
A judge temporarily blocked the drones from recording based on the constitutional right not to be searched without cause. While this case was in motion before coronavirus, a number of municipalities and countries are starting to use drones to monitor contact between anyone known to have tested positive for coronavirus.
TRENDPOST: As we have continually noted, absent of the media, politicians and the general public is the abject violation of nations’ Constitutions, Bill of Rights and “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” that has become the way of the COVID-19 world.
