By Dr. Joseph Mercola | mercola.com
STORY AT-A-GLANCE
- During 2020, Sweden, under the guidance of chief epidemiologist Anders Tegnell, did not universally lockdown, shutter small businesses, close schools, or implement mask mandates
- Seniors and other high-risk individuals were asked to stay home, social distance and mask up, while all others were free to live much as they normally would
- According to the Imperial College of London model, Sweden would have been looking at a death toll of 80,000 by the end of June 2020 if it didn’t lockdown. The true number, by mid-September 2020, after no lockdowns at all, still stood at only 5,880, a vast majority of whom were elderly with comorbidities
- Swedish data show teachers are among the professions that have the lowest risk of hospitalization and death from COVID-19
- Pandemic lethality has been oversold across the globe, as total mortality for 2020 has not spiked above norms
The COVID-19 pandemic has undoubtedly been the most traumatic period of time in many people’s lives. The devastation wrought is incalculable when you take into account things that aren’t easily measured, such as mental health, physical abuse, and food insecurity.
The harsh truth, however, is that virtually none of it was necessary. The real damage occurred as a result of the decisions made by global, national, and local health and government officials, acting in concert according to some predetermined plan.
The Swedish ‘Just Enough’ Way
The featured 45-minute documentary, “COVID, Tango, and The Lagom Way,” won the Outstanding Achievement Award in the Los Angeles International Indie Short Fest film festival in January 2021.
The film was made by filmmaker, relationship counselor, and tango aficionado Claudia Nye, an Argentinian living in the U.K., who “trapped in lockdown between the two extremes of coronavirus deniers and lockdown orthodoxy,” became intrigued by the approach adopted in Sweden.
During 2020, Sweden, at the resolute guidance of chief epidemiologist Anders Tegnell, did not universally lockdown, shutter small businesses, close schools, or implement mask mandates. Nye and photo-journalist Sean Spencer decided to investigate the country’s chosen strategy.
“The Lagom Way” refers to the Swedish notion that keeping to the “middle of the road” is best and extremes are to be avoided. Put another way, it’s the principle of “just enough” — not too much and not too little. It’s about being “reasonable.” “We don’t want to hurt anyone unnecessarily,” Tegnell says, “but we want to have a good effect as possible.”
Hence, only some schools were closed during certain periods of time, and only office workers were asked to work from home to minimize crowding in public transportation. Retail shops, gyms, and restaurants remained open, some recommending social distancing and masks, but not as a strict rule.
So, while residents in many other parts of the world were told to stay home or face fines or jail time, Swedes were tango dancing in Stockholm, and people were simply asked to take “common sense” precautions based on their individual circumstances.
Seniors and other high-risk individuals were asked to stay home, social distance, and mask up, while all others were free to live much as they normally would. As noted by Tegnell, “In Sweden, we have chosen a voluntary way and it’s proven to be sustainable and effective.”
Tegnell on the Swedish Approach
Nye says that whenever she would bring up the Swedish approach on social media, she was told it was a “right-wing” strategy or that it is irrelevant because Sweden is so sparsely populated.
When asked to comment on these retorts, Tegnell denies both, saying the strategy chosen was completely apolitical, and while Sweden may be slightly less densely populated than some countries, overall, many areas are very densely populated, such as the capital of Stockholm. Hence, that cannot account for their lower death toll.
According to the Imperial College of London model (which has repeatedly been proven to be fantastically incorrect), Sweden would have been looking at a death toll of 80,000 by the end of June 2020 if it didn’t lockdown.
Alas, the true number, by mid-September 2020, after no lockdowns at all, still only stood at 5,880, a vast majority of whom were elderly with comorbidities. In fact, of those, only 872 were a direct result of COVID-19. The rest had one or more conditions that contributed to their death.
When asked about how she feels about the idea of locking down entire societies to protect the vulnerable, like herself, an elderly lady shakes her head, saying it must be like “torture.” She doesn’t see how anyone would think it a good idea.
Global data also raises questions about the effectiveness of lockdowns and other measures. Nye presents a number of graphs and charts demonstrating that pandemic lethality has been oversold, as total mortality for 2020 has not spiked above norms.
Interestingly, Tegnell also points out that teachers have turned out to be among the professions that have the lowest risk of hospitalization and death from COVID-19. They have quite a bit of data on this, since most schools remained open for face-to-face teaching, and masks were not required.
In fact, teachers appear to be protected by being around children and young adults in the school setting, Tegnell says. It has not put them at risk. He also correctly points out that COVID-19 is a disease that primarily affects the very old and those in ill health. The risk for everyone else, particularly children, is very low, he says.
This finding is in stark contrast to the fear displayed by teachers in many other countries, In the U.S. and U.K. in particular, many teachers are still terrified of reentering the classroom and want closures to continue. As noted in New York Magazine,1 remote learning has been a catastrophe in more ways than one, and teachers’ unions share a big part of the blame for robbing children of their education and parents of their livelihood.
Freefall Economy — Was COVID-19 Responsible?
While small businesses in tourist areas did suffer economically due to travel bans imposed by other countries into Sweden, most retailers have stayed afloat. This too is in stark contrast to many other countries that forced businesses to shut. Nye points to headlines stating that coronavirus is responsible for putting the global economy into freefall, but she questions whether the pandemic was the real cause.
Six months before COVID-19 hit, the World Economic Forum announced that China was taking a leading role in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which is part and parcel of the Great Reset agenda. At the time, it was reported that China was dumping the world market prices, sending the global stock markets into a tailspin. So, might the pandemic be a cover for an already crumbling financial system?
She notes that as COVID-19 spread around the world, it remained concentrated in the G-20s, the 20 largest economies of the world. Was that coincidental? Was it unintentional that the world’s largest corporations boomed, raking in enormous profits during the pandemic, while small businesses were faltering and being driven into bankruptcy? All things considered, it sure doesn’t seem accidental.
Functional Leadership
A relationship counselor herself, Nye explains how and why many world leaders have fundamentally failed in their management of this crisis, and why Tegnell’s approach works. While some European media have claimed Swedes are “more responsible” than, say the British, Nye dismisses such notions. In reality, it’s about basic psychology.
She goes on to explain what’s called “transactional analysis,” which is based on the premise that we all have three ego modes: parent, adult, and child. We’ve all been children, we’ve all been parented and, hopefully, have grown into sensible adults.
A relationship is healthy when communication between two individuals occurs on the parallel. Adult to adult, two people can make joint plans, for example. Parent to Parent, we can buy a home and raise a family. Child to child, we can dance and play together. “Trouble ensues when the relationship becomes crossed,” Nye explains.
Tegnell’s communication with the Swedish people is one of adult to adult, and by encouraging self-responsibility, he builds a relationship of trust. U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s draconian lockdown edicts, however, are that of parent to child, triggering people to respond either as the fearful child or the rebellious child. It’s a dysfunctional relationship based on intimidation that breeds fear and distrust.
Speaking of the intricacies of tango dancing, but alluding to the art of leadership in general, Nye says: “When a leader doesn’t listen, abruptly changing his moves without warning or care, unaware of the group, bumping into people, he will be instilling confusion and fear in his partner. The dance falls apart …”
Another Round of Fearmongering
Clearly, many world leaders are either unaware of how to generate trust, or that simply isn’t one of their priorities. Perhaps the instilling of fear really is the primary goal. At least it seems that way, judging by recent media headlines. They now warn a new SARS-CoV-2 strain in South Africa appears resistant to antibodies from the original virus.2
The Novavax and Johnson & Johnson vaccines don’t work as well against this South African variant, or against the mutated variant circulating in the U.K.3,4 WebMD warn “COVID-19 may hide in brains and cause relapses.”5 In other words, the invisible enemy is still at large, and unless you remain hypervigilant, it will get you, one way or another. There’s simply no safety to be had.
It’s not surprising then to “learn” that we have to mask up even if vaccinated.6 One of several reasons for this is because “it would be difficult to know if people without masks have actually gotten vaccinated. They could be an anti-masker,” Medivizor writes.7 Yes, god forbid we can’t immediately determine whether someone is out of compliance with an illogical rule.
In a poorly disguised effort to make compliance with the absurd more “hip,” The New York Times put out an article promoting double-masking as a fashion statement. “Single masks are out; singles masks are in. Well-fitted, two- and three-layer masks are in; whatever you had before is out,” NYT reporter Tara Parker-Pope writes.8
Not content to stop there, some “experts” are promoting the use of three9 or even four10 masks. Tripling and quadrupling recommendations sparked a mild backlash, however, with other experts encouraging the return to common sense, as breathing is an important life function as well.
As detailed in “The Fog of COVID War,” pandemic responses in the U.S. and elsewhere have seesawed back and forth, from one extreme to the next, leaving nothing but confusion in its wake. In March 2020, we were told face masks offered no protection against the new virus and only symptomatic individuals should use them. In June, everyone had to wear them because there may be asymptomatic super-spreaders among us.
Interestingly enough, that same month, the World Health Organization admitted that asymptomatic transmission was “very rare.” If that’s true, then why was everyone told to wear face masks to prevent asymptomatic spread?
Not long thereafter, research involving nearly 9.9 million individuals revealed not a single case of COVID-19 could be traced to an asymptomatic individual who had tested positive, effectively destroying the asymptomatic spread narrative.
Yet the calls for double, triple, and quadruple masking came after it was established that, unless you have symptoms, you’re of no risk to anyone. Similarly, renewed calls for lockdowns of healthy populations continued as well.
All of this is what Nye refers to when she talks about what happens when leaders don’t listen, abruptly change their moves, and remain unaware of group dynamics. It instills confusion and fear, and the dance of social cohesion falls apart.
Are We Dealing With Bad Leadership or a Planned Coup?
The question is, is this done on purpose? Or are world leaders just bad leaders? Many believe it’s the former, and have presented evidence to support their theories.
Among them is financial guru Catherine Austin Fitts,11 who in an interview for the documentary “Planet Lockdown” describes the plan to use this crisis to engineer a total remake of world currencies and our entire way of life.
Comparing the move to herding sheep to a slaughterhouse, Fitts explains how the pandemic is lining people up to depend on their governments for protection from an invisible enemy (COVID-19) and then using fear to keep people from living what once was considered a normal life.
The herd mentality includes encouraging debt entrapment to the point that people become desperate for any type of cash flow that can help them meet their day-to-day living expenses until they willingly give up their rights in exchange for any relief offered to them.
The bottom line is that a slavery system, steeped in the ideologies of transhumanism and technocracy, is being created right under the noses of the people of the world — and the current lockdowns, the closing of small businesses, and the redefinition of “normal” are all part of a planned global governance system that will end sovereignty and individual rights.
Embrace Fearlessness
The emotional response allowing this global takeover to bulldoze forward is fear. The remedy, therefore, is fearlessness. As noted by Dr. Vladimir Zelenko who, like Fitts, has become convinced that we’re in the middle of a hostile takeover by a global elite that aims to enslave us, psychologically, financially, and physically:
“It’s unbelievable the crime that's been done on the human psyche. I'm screaming to humanity: Don't be scared! Be cautious. Be smart. Use common sense. But don't be scared. Return back to life. Reengage in life.”
The reason you don’t need to live in fear is manifold. First of all, the lethality of COVID-19 is on par with influenza, unless you’re very old or chronically ill.12 Ninety-four percent of those who have died in the U.S. died with SARS-CoV-2, not from it.13
Secondly, we now know of several treatments that work. Importantly, we know that if treated early enough (within the first five days of symptoms), the risk of hospitalization and death is extremely low. Early treatment also appears to eliminate the risk of “long-haul” symptoms, according to Zelenko.
Part of releasing fear is getting clarity and not being in a state of constant confusion. Educating yourself about the facts, first-hand, is the best way to achieve clarity within your own mind. As noted by Zelenko:
“I see the world now with such clarity … It’s no longer confusing. It's a binary choice. It's very clear who's on what side. And here are the teams: There are those who want to live a life of God, conscious … No one has the right to enslave another human being. That's one approach. The other is [internment] … an attempt to enslave the world population …
If you look at the United Nations and the World Economic Forum, they have a 30-year plan … That's all spelled out in their charter. Just look at it … There's myriad of politicians calling for the Great Reset …
What we're really fighting for is the soul of man … Every person is being asked one simple question: Either bow down to God and have the divine presence protect you or you're going to bow down to Bill Gates.”