It’s that time of the year: tinsel on trees, chestnuts roasting on an open fire, sleigh bells ringing — and the cops coming through the door and breaking up Christmas dinner.
No, this isn’t neo-fascist China, but Britain, where police chiefs warn that this can be the consequence if people violate lockdown rules this Yuletide season.
This notice comes on the heels of the South Wales Police breaking up a church service in Cardiff, a move that inspired a comparison with pseudo-communist China. As the Daily Mail reports:
David Jamieson, the West Midlands police and crime commissioner, said officers will investigate reports of rule-breaking over the festive period.
The West Midlands are currently under Tier 2 restrictions, meaning people cannot mix with any other households or bubbles inside.
… The police chief also warned about the upcoming Hanukkah and Diwali celebrations which will also see families eager to gather inside, contrary to the rules in certain areas.
… Jane Kennedy, the PCC in Merseyside, which is currently a Tier 3 region, said she would also investigate reports of illegal gatherings over Christmas.
Mr Jamieson said he fears civil unrest could boil over in the West Midlands in the near future, with the end of the furlough scheme ‘very likely’ to push people over the edge.
… He fears the trigger this time could be heavy-handed police forces shutting down celebrations and enforcing harsh restrictions.
… Professor John Edmunds, a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), said ‘radical action’ would be needed to stem the rise in coronavirus cases, particularly in regions with high incidence of the virus.
… ‘The notion that we can carry on as we are and have a Christmas that we can celebrate normally with friends and family is wishful thinking in the extreme,’ [he said].
A simple but necessary question: Why is it wishful? Furthermore, what’s wrong with a “rise in coronavirus cases”? The second question especially may sound like unreality. But that’s because the media have been framing the China virus situation unrealistically.
While speaking last night to someone I’m very close to, COVID-19 came up and I mentioned that Sweden, which never locked down, is doing very well managing the disease. Though this person is conservative, she only has access to mainstream media and was surprised at my statement. Despite knowing that I’m a well-informed newshound, she pressed me, asking if I was sure.
Certainly, her perspective is no surprise. The media stress that Sweden, as with other European nations, has been experiencing a fall “second wave” in China virus infections. But here’s what’s interesting:
Unlike other European nations, Sweden has not experienced a spike in deaths.
On the contrary, the past week has been the country’s best, with only three deaths recorded, since the China virus situation began.
Oh, you don’t have to take my word for it. Just take a look at the graphs below, provided by mainstream-media darling the World Health Organization.
What this indicates is that higher infection rate is not synonymous with higher mortality rate — and only the mortality rate, and secondarily the hospitalization rate, matter. Note above that the death rate did not go up as COVID cases spiked.
Of course, lockdown-crazy Britain isn’t doing as well, as its WHO generated graphs (below) indicate. Note that its death rate is climbing.
The point is this: Is it possible that Sweden is doing something right? Note, again, Sweden never instituted laws mandating a lockdown. It doesn’t compel people to wear masks, believing they lend a false sense of security. And its prescribed social distance is only a meter (approx. 39 inches).
Oh, it’s also not threatening to raid Christmas dinner and leave turkey and stuffing splattered on the walls.
(And this isn’t just because, being the West’s most atheistic nation, we’re not sure how many Christmas dinners there’ll be in Sweden.)
Of course, there are other differences between Sweden and Britain — such as the former being a colder country where one might expect the China virus to be more problematic.
Speaking of problematic, consider a story relating to the aforementioned raided Cardiff church. One of its members, “81-year-old June Russell left the church and went home to her one bed flat, cried and did not sleep,” reported Christian Concern.
“She has no family nearby and no internet, so the church community is her only outlet.”
“I have to admit that during this pandemic I have contemplated suicide as I was in lockdown for 18 weeks,” the site quoted her as confessing. “My TV was my only connection to the outside world. My church is the only thing I enjoy, and I go three times a week.”
This reflects a wider reality: Due to lockdown restrictions, suicides and crime are up. So are alcohol, drug, child, and spousal abuse, along with depression, anxiety, and certain other negative psychological phenomena.
There are also more people dying because they’re not getting their usual medical care — cancer screenings and other preventive measures, various treatments, etc. There’s in addition the economic distress/poverty lockdowns cause, which can exacerbate all the aforementioned issues.
Yet there’s a deeper issue, one almost never addressed: What does it profit a nation to gain the world but to lose its soul?
The most zealous mask imperialists want us to don a (too often) filthy face burka even outdoors. Yet with interpersonal connection already diminished in our screen-addiction society where people are conjoined with electronic devices, does it really behoove us to turn them into “faceless” creatures whose countenance is unreadable? Heck, just add some dark shades and we can turn everyone into the invisible man.
Moreover, the Branch Covidians would keep nursing home elderly isolated from their families for months on end, so some die alone in their beds. In the United States, Dr. Anthony Fauci, while saying dating-app “hook-ups” are personal choice, states that a tradition existing for millennia — shaking hands — should be discontinued. And now we’re even supposed to nix church and Christmas dinner and forget God’s altar as we bow down before the pooh-bahs of politicized prescriptions.
It’s oh-so convenient if you’re a COVID Khmer Rouge revolutionary who wants your own Year Zero. But is all this worth it with a disease whose age-specific survival rates, relates Breitbart, are “0-19 years old, 99.997 percent; 20-49 years old, 99.98 percent; [and] 50-69 years, 99.5 percent”? This, by the way, is according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
The China virus may not be around permanently. But a killed culture assuredly will stay dead, forever.
