Image Credit: Flickr / Government of BC

By James Peters

COVID-19

PETERS: No, the cure for COVID-19 is not worse than the disease

Nov 20, 2020 | 12:08 PM

DR. BONNIE HENRY HAS SPENT about nine months in the middle of an impossible struggle.

On the one side, she is being tugged by those who believe her actions to stop the COVID-19 pandemic have not gone far enough.

On the other side, she is being tugged by those who say her actions have been too strict.

Yesterday, she introduced a number of measures that will be sure to please the first group – putting an end to social gatherings, events and non-essential travel and requiring masks in public spaces.

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In doing so, she will almost certainly draw more ire from that second group.

Many of these folks could best be described as COVID truthers. They do not believe the prevailing narrative that says COVID-19 is a virus we should all be taking steps to avoid.

Weighing COVID-19 deaths against deaths from other causes, they tell us the cure imposed by public health officials is worse than the disease.

They believe the measures enacted are doing more damage than COVID-19 ever would.

If we want to get an accurate picture of what harm the virus could do, though, we don’t look at Canada. We look at a country that has let the virus run rampant – and no, this time it’s not the United States.

We look at Sweden.

Early on, Sweden decided to test out the herd immunity strategy. It largely kept public restrictions to a minimum and kept business going as usual so as not to sink its economy.

For the first few months, it went exactly as expected: Sweden’s case counts and death tolls were way higher than its neighbours in Scandinavia.

But at least Sweden was ready for the second wave, right? Everyone had immunity?

No. The second wave has hit Sweden just as hard if not harder than its neighbours. As of last week, the country’s test capacity had been overrun by the rate of new infections. Sweden’s death rate is 10 times that of Finland and Norway.

Oh yeah, what about the economy? Even though far more people are dying, at least the economy is doing well, right?

Wrong. Sweden’s economic decline is exactly on par with the rest of Scandinavia.

It’s almost like when more people are sick and dying, the economy will suffer. Funny how that works.

Sweden’s top doctors and scientists are now telling the world not to copy their country’s approach and rather to enact restrictions to limit the spread.

We should listen to them. This week, Dr. Henry has.

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or the Jim Pattison Broadcast Group.