Just heard Radio National reporting on a survey in Sweden that showed the highest approval rating in Sweden for the Swedish Covid policy was amongst the elderly.
And they found that a bit puzzling and essentially, I think, put it down to politics – the elderly simply approving of anything ‘their’ party (which is in power) is doing – and the general docility of the elderly.
I don’t know what it is. But it could be something else. The elderly may be acutely aware that they are the most at risk. Overwhelmingly. 70% of the infected simply have no symptoms at all or very mild. The elderly generally don’t fall into that category.
And so on. There’s no debate. The elderly are the major risk group.
So why be in favour of a permissive ‘lockdown’ policy?
Well maybe because the elderly are practicing self isolation and waiting for the infection to spread through the populace to where herd immunity is reached.
And then they can come out of ‘hiding’.
This is a sensible approach. The only really sensible approach all things considered.
The sensitive are protected – protect themselves – and the ‘forcible’ (by the forces of nature) ‘vaccination’ of the populace proceeds in the quickest possible manner – slowed only by some modest social distancing measures that enable the hospitals to cope with the load.
Which in any case in the absence of the elderly will be a modest load even when the virus spreads at its quickest.
So as testing methods slowly improve it gets easier and easier to discover what percentage of the population has been exposed to the virus and fairly quickly it becomes apparent that ‘it is over’, that nearly everyone (save the ‘hidden’ elderly ) have had it.
And the elderly can relax.
In contrast to the Australian model.
Which seeks to keep the virus out. Which quarantines all of Australia.
Which isn’t bad in itself, arguably but which means that the elderly will never be surrounded by a safe ‘immune herd’.
They will be surrounded by a susceptible herd, a herd very prone to infection and therefore very prone to rapidly spreading it. They don’t report the rate, to this day we are without accurate figures for the main parameters: death rate/infected, R nought, infection rate/population. But we can clearly see it could move at its quickest among a totally susceptible population.
Aware of this ‘spreading’ danger – which exists right now – the govt. has introduced severe lockdown and social distancing measures which are currently killing the country and actually killing individuals in the country owing to various associated factors that come into play and which had not been considered.
The govt is trying to reduce these measures – ‘roll them back’. And if they are successful they’ll get to where all the measures have been removed and we are back to ‘normal’ life among the ruins and can make a start rebuilding, hopefully.
But we will remain a susceptible population. And any successful invasion of the virus from outside, any case that gets through our border controls – will find itself in a virgin population through which it can travel at its best speed.
The elderly in Australia will not find themselves embedded in an immune herd.
There will be no immune herd.
They can never feel that measure of safety. The virus still stalking them. Death still waiting in the wings.
Owing to border controls and residual ‘distancing’ measures which the govt. is saying it will continue in the foreseeable future, I believe, any new invasions by the virus into Australia will be prevented from making a sudden widespread ‘blip’ on the radar indicative of a sudden outbreak and calling forth an instantaneous full scale response such as we’re all embroiled in right now.
Rather there’ll be one or two cases here and there or something of that nature. A much slower spread. Almost a stealth spread. Not slowed by natural herd immunity making it difficult for the virus to travel through the population, but by the artificial distancing practices making travel difficult.
But, of course, travel it will.
And invasion from outside, breaching of our border controls will almost – almost, I suppose, or certainly? – occur.
So the virus will be at all time exerting a pressure, will at all times be stalking us.
And we will be at all times socially and economically ‘crippled’ by our efforts, our measures, to slow its spread within the nation if it gets in.
That’s the planned future.
The plan is to make the nation artificially ‘covid sterile’ in a covid world.
All in order to protect me. I’m elderly. So – the Swedish puzzle. Why do they approve? Well I’d approve, too. For the sake of myself and for the sake of the nation.
If you all get it and recover then I’m finally safe in an immune herd which is good for me. And the nation’s work and social life can continue which is good for you and the nation.
But hopefully I’m looking at it not perhaps all wrong but perhaps without full information or full understanding of what will happen.
Perhaps the virus will simply die out in the wider world. Run its course. Mutate itself out of existence. Polio did not. The common cold did not. Many virii do not. But many do mutate into milder forms which then coexist with us for millenia or something.
Perhaps something like that will happen. And as the Australian border controls report fewer and fewer incidences of covid detection down to where eventually there are none at all and it seems clear the virus has gone from the world the danger will have passed and all controls will be relaxed and we’ll get back to normal. Get down to counting the cost. Get down to figuring a better way to handle the next one.
I hope so. I do. 🙂
