Breathing fresh air is banned

Don’t be afraid to critically think and challenge some of the things being imposed on you. Breathe fresh air when outside or forever breath your own Co2 with your face mask

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By Kevin-James Fenech

Kevin is the founder and owner of JOB Search - jobsearch.mt and FENCI Consulting fenci.eu.

As predicted, the Medical Association of Malta (MAM) flexed its muscles and went on a Mafia style intimidation exercise in recent weeks. The outcome of which was more restrictive public health laws.

The core message to the Government remains ‘do as we say or else!’.

The problem is that with each disproportionate imposition and restriction, we are as a country falling down a slippery authoritarian slope. We also seem to be discriminating, in a prejudicial manner, between the COVID19 virus and other more serious killers such as cancer or heart disease. COVID19 clearly is the number 1 priority right now despite the low death rate.

Furthermore, the state is arbitrarily taking away a lot of our liberties; including the right to breathe fresh outside. The silent majority, currently, say nothing in good faith but questions are starting to be whispered.

For example, the wearing of a face mask everywhere except your own home is (a) based on weak science (b) not tackling the root cause and (c) defies basic common sense.

This decision is the direct result of undue pressure (mentioned above) and the volume of misinformation and half-truths on the subject. I genuinely believe that the banning of breathing fresh when outside is the direct result of this misinformation campaign and the illegitimate pressure being applied on government by some sectors.

The end result of all this is that in the name of ‘public health’ great democratic crimes are being committed against our people; crimes which remove our liberty unnecessarily and undermine our social and economic wellbeing.

Let me tackle just three of the most popular topics:

COVID19 death rate

We keep being told by the ‘experts’ that the COVID19 death rate is alarmingly high (e.g. Spain 3.4%; US 2.7%; Malta 0.97%). What we are not being told by the authorities is that the calculation being used is crude: a division of number of deaths by the number of confirmed cases.

What sadly we are not being told is that most active cases have gone unrecorded this year and this has been confirmed by antibody tests carried out in various countries in recent months. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the total number of infections is estimated to be anything between 6 to 24 times greater than the number of reported cases. So our 4,737 cases if multiplied by a factor of 6 equates to 28,422 cases this year which would mean that the COVID19 death rate in Malta is actually 0.15%.

In fact, WHO calculates the world COVID19 death rate to be near 0.66%.

I think this number is immensely important for decision makers, since it allows them to calibrate their decisions according to the actual risk to public health in a proportionate manner. In such a scenario, I wouldn’t ban people from breathing fresh air when outside.

Lockdowns, curfews and restrictions

A one-size-fits-all set of public health restrictions suffocate liberty and unfairly impose grave economic hardship on the general population.

In the words of Dr. David Nabarro, a special envoy of WHO on COVID19:

‘Lockdowns….just have one consequence that you must never ever belittle, and that is making poor people an awful lot poorer.’ In fact, WHO estimates that in 2020 and because of COVID19, poverty levels will have doubled!

What some sectors of this country fail to understand or appreciate, perhaps, is that without a functioning economy, the whole of society unravels and breaks down. This is why we must always adopt a balanced approach to our COVID19 strategy and lockdowns or semi-lockdowns do more harm than good.

Herd Immunity

We are told by some ‘experts’ that herd immunity is a terrible thing and not feasible.

Gabriella Gomes of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine published research which claims that countries can achieve herd immunity with just 10 to 20 percent of the population being infected. Needless to say, this is a far cry from the original 60%-70%-90% we were quoted earlier this year.

Apparently, it is all down to how the ‘coefficient of variation’ is calculated but we are getting technical although if interested I recommend you read: https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/herd-immunity-may-only-need-a-10-per-cent-infection-rate

In the words of Prof. Sunetra Grupta (more on her below): ‘Life can go back to normal if we make it our common goal to achieve herd immunity’.

What I am quoting is not something that a handful of courageous scientists/experts/doctors are propagating but literally thousands of experts that have joined this global movement warning of ‘grave concerns’ about COVID19 lockdown restrictive policies. I am specifically referring to the Great Barrington Declaration; https://gbdeclaration.org/

For the record, the Declaration is authored by none other than:

Dr. Martin Kulldorff, professor of medicine at Harvard University, a biostatistician, and epidemiologist with expertise in detecting and monitoring infectious disease outbreaks and vaccine safety evaluations;

Dr. Sunetra Gupta, professor at Oxford University, an epidemiologist with expertise in immunology, vaccine development, and mathematical modeling of infectious diseases;

Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, professor at Stanford University Medical School, a physician, epidemiologist, health economist, and public health policy expert focusing on infectious diseases and vulnerable populations.

My point is that we are sacrificing an awful lot of liberty, raising serious ethical questions and systematically failing to use our common sense when it comes to public health policies and regulations, and all because of a fear caused by misinformation and half-truths.

Don’t be afraid to critically think and challenge some of the things being imposed on you. Breathe fresh air when outside or forever breath your own Co2 with your face mask.

Editor’s Note:

The opinions and statements in this article are strictly those of the author and do not represent the opinion of BusinessToday. BusinessToday strongly believes in strictly following the advice, recommendations and regulations issued by the Health Department and the Superintendent for Public Health

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