PUBLIC-HEALTH LIES: THE BITTER PRICE

WE were swindled, fooled, bamboozled and lied to during the pandemic. The public-health establishment misled the American people about the value of masking, closures and social distancing. No one has accepted blame. Understanding how badly we failed is not only an inevitable part of the “told you so” process but, more important, a lesson for next time. Just ask the Swedes.

Sweden had zero excess deaths associated with COVID-19. The United States had the most excess deaths of all nations. New York had more than Florida. That’s the whole story right there. Let’s unpack it.

The key element of misdirection in the American swindle was case counts, those running numbers on screens telling us how many Americans had tested positive for COVID. It looks like some 60% of us have had COVID at some point, with most of us experiencing mild or no symptoms.

How high the case numbers went in your neck of the woods depended a lot on the amount of testing taking place. More testing meant more “cases.”

Yet the case count tells us very little. Hospitalization totals are useful for managing caseload but often are indicative of protocols like testing patients upon entry to the hospital. Hospital treatments changed, too. Initially, many COVID-positive people were put on respirators. Before long, doctors realized infections associated with long-term respirator use were killing people, too.

Eventually, hospitalization numbers went down. That stat, too, only told you so much. Since COVID proved fatal primarily to the elderly, many hospitalizations began with something else only to end with COVID.

Modern medicine can’t cure death. Most Americans who don’t die earlier in life in accidents typically die after the age of 77. In 2020, heart disease and cancer each killed about double the number of people that COVID did.

The only statistic that really matters about the roughly two years of the pandemic is “excess deaths,” deaths beyond the usual couple of million that occur every year.

Sweden had zero excess deaths. America had the most of all nations. New York had more than Florida.

Sweden did very little in terms of halting work and school or forcing masking and social distancing. America did quite a bit more. The US states known for their COVID “efforts,” particularly New York, had excess deaths worse than or similar to do-little Florida. These states expended an awful lot of effort and angst and suffered great collateral damage (addiction, suicide, unemployment, social unrest, failing grades) for very little benefit.

We were lied to by the COVIDians. In July 2020, The New York Times stated Sweden’s “decision to carry on in the face of the pandemic has yielded a surge of deaths without sparing its economy from damage. Sweden’s grim result — more death, and nearly equal economic damage — suggests that the

PETER VAN BUREN

supposed choice between lives and paychecks is a false one.”

Tsk, tsk, said the media. And they’re still saying it. Despite Florida having 148 excess deaths per 100,000 to New York’s 248, Politico’s May 1 headline read: “Florida lost 70,000 people to Covid. It’s still not prepared for the next wave.”

Much as Florida did, Sweden let restaurants, gyms, shops and most schools stay open. People went to work; some voluntarily masked, some not. Its decision stood in stark contrast to America, where, by April 2020, the CDC recommended draconian lockdowns, throwing millions out of work and school.

Besides leaving our economy in shambles, America’s COVID strategy apparently did not consider the age disparity in excess deaths. Globally, most COVID deaths occurred among persons age 77 and older. But

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Saving lives or saving the economy? Swedes.’ Both, please. Ask the

everyone was made to wear a mask as though everyone were at equal risk and without solid evidence that mask mandates significantly lower viral spread in the community.

Age-specific solutions were needed for a virus with age-specific effects. We ignored or overlooked the data. We are paying for that mistake now. Saving lives or saving the economy? Both, please. Ask the Swedes.

America’s pandemic response was wrong across the board.

It was also exacerbated by Americans’ underlying health, which is worse than in most other developed countries. Our underlying health woes are exacerbated by income inequality and high rates of poverty and maddening levels of obesity, diabetes and “deaths of despair,” especially among the underclass. Whatever we did, whether we masked or locked down or stayed open and maskless, we still would have suffered because of these underlying issues. Fixing the next pandemic means fixing America first.