Questions waiting for Answers

How did we get it so wrong?
"The only means to fight the plague is honesty." Albert Camus, The Plague (1947)


"It's easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled." Not Mark Twain

Perhaps it was not just the lack of information, but maybe the worldwide reaction was due to some deeply evolved response to disease and fears of contagion reactions. We might question whether our media and leaders thoughts were the results of rational reasoning, or whether they might have been shaped by an ancient response that evolved millennia before the discovery of germ theory.
There is growing evidence that the original WHO death estimate of 3.4% based on official Chinese numbers was wrong by a factor of 10 to 25x.

Initially the experts and politicians wanted extreme measures like lockdowns or stay in place to "flatten the curve" then to "save lives". Then there have been estimates of how many more lives would have been saved by closing the economy a week earlier.
Now that they are realising the effect and cost of lockdowns, freedoms are being restored, and nothing has changed. The virus is still around, except that masks are being worn.
Initially the experts like the WHO and the CDC said don't wear masks, the virus is not airborne, and touching your face to fiddle with the mask is a big no-no. Recently wearing masks is not only recommended but compulsory in many countries, and the WHO and the CDC have now updated their advice to a maybe its OK to wear a mask.
Do our leaders really think that we are all dumb enough to not realise that the original restrictions were impractical and futile.

This article, not yet peer reviewed claims "Full lockdown policies in Western Europe countries have no evident impacts on the COVID-19 epidemic." Full article.
Deadlier than Covid? Medics sound alarm as lockdown suicides SOAR in US

The arrival of TrueSpeak

29 July 2020. Something that I never thought I would see in my lifetime was the restriction on expressing a view. Google, Facebook, Twitter and Apple are only allowing the public to read and see what they believe is correct and follows the views of the WHO and the CDC, both of whom have been wrong at times. They are removing posts that they, and they themselves deem untrue. Never mind that the dissenting opinion from the authorised view could have an element of truth. If it disagrees with what they believe or their political ideology, it disappears from public view.

When President Trump tweeted a link to a group called Medicine and Censors which advocated the use of Hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for COVID-19, where it received 17 million hits, it was removed in a day. I do not know if their argument has merit, but it sounded plausible, even though the doctors were accused of being Tea Party supporters. Part of the video can be seen here.

Here is the LINK to a challenging presentation or HERE., "Frontline Physicians Aim to Dispel 'Massive' COVID-19 'Disinformation Campaign' on Capitol Hill". Since you may not want to watch the whole thing here are the time markers for special speakers.
The first speakers discussed the small risks of returning children to schools.
At 41 minutes there is a talk on the effect of effect of fear on children.
At 51 minutes Dr Clark talks about protecting the seniors.
At 1:04 minutes Dr Erickson talks about dispelling some of the fears..
At 1:36 to 1:37 minutes this discussion from some of the presenting physicians their success with hydroxychloroquine and then the medical counter culture that they faced. Dr Armstrong describes how he gave hydroxychloroquine to 38 very elderly nursing home patients with co-morbidities who all survived the COVID-19.

Read about the unexplained opposition to hydroxychloroquine HERE!.

Hydroxychloroquine is obviously not a panacea for severe cases of Covid-19. Given early, it helps reduce mortality by about half, compared to those not given the drug. Indian expert.

There is a new kind of censorship.
The search engines are only delivering what they think is the correct information.
Under the claim that "Tech giants struggle to stem 'infodemic' of false coronavirus claims" they will only give you what they think is correct.
So this website that carefully examines the evidence and then suggests shields instead of masks, is ignored by search engines because it does not agree with the WHO or the CDC.
Should we Worry?

The Effect of False News

We all know that social media spreads much incorrect information, such as the 5G story.
However, there is also much misinformation that terrifies the public spread by the drama seeking media.
For example below is a link to a post article that says "Visualization shows how droplets from one cough can infect an entire airplane".
The article says "Researchers found that passengers sitting with a SARS patient in a seven-row section of a Boeing 767 would have a one-in-three chance of getting sick from a 5-hour flight."

The article then adds "It's worth noting that the Purdue study assumed the virus that caused SARS could stay airborne for long periods, which is different from what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says is typically occurring with the novel coronavirus."
What impression are you likely to carry away from this statement?
Will one in a hundred realise that according to the experts the virus does not stay airborne so the report is of no consequence.

I know what I read, but in a plane I will wear a mask and a shield, all the way!

You will need a strong mind to fly after reading it?

Source https://nypost.com/2020/04/30/visualization-shows-droplets-from-one-cough-infecting-large-number-of-passengers/.

There will be consequences. Who will be blamed?

April 2020. The first to be blamed will be the WHO. Apparently the WHO claim that at no time did they recommend lockdowns, so are not responsible for the wholesale destruction.
However their commending of the Chinese for their "aggressive disease containment effort" seems pretty clear support of containment or lockdown or staying in place.

29 April 2020. Mike Ryan, the WHO's top emergencies expert, has said Wednesday there are "lessons to be learned" from the Scandinavian nation, which has largely relied on citizens to self-regulate.
"I think there's a perception out that Sweden has not put in control measures and just has allowed the disease to spread," Ryan told reporters. "Nothing can be further from the truth."
Ryan noted that instead of lockdowns, the country has "put in place a very strong public policy around social distancing, around caring and protecting people in long term care facilities." Source NY Post


This statement would appear to prevent blaming the WHO for countries applying lockdowns. Let's see if they and the politicians can fool all the people. . . .

However reports from Sweden would not fully support this statement, since restaurants, shops and most businesses have been open. Photos taken during April 2020 and even the photo in the article show very few citizens with masks or even social distancing.

There have also been reports of claims by care workers that Sweden did not take enough care of the aged, which might explain a high portion of the death toll.

In Italy and then New York nothing can surpass the stupidity of sending COVID-19 patients to care homes when hospitals were getting too crowded.

South Africa is currently struggling with a wave of CO-19 speading through aged care centres, with blame falling on insufficient PPE due to cost and availability restrictions. You would think that with all the planes on the ground and lower fuel costs someone would send a few planes to China where is plenty of availability according to the email offers I get every day.

The politicians will claim that they were right and that their plans "saved lives and livelihoods".
By the time that the statisticians come out with correct figures, they will be prosperously retired and our memories will be faded.

We are observing how the official reasons for lock-downs have changed from smoothing the curve so that the hospitals would not be overwhelmed and "saving the hospital system" when we found hospitals were empty, to "having had time to increase hospital capacity", so now lockdown conditions can be eased. Watch for "we now have better protection techniques" when infection rates do not balloon.

Daily Maverick, Dateline 29 April 2020.
We already see claims like: Mkhize said the lockdown had slowed the spread of the virus and avoided an "explosion" of Covid-19 cases.
It bought time to prepare the health system to respond and allowed people to adapt to hygiene and physical distancing guidelines.
Mkhize said the easing of lockdown regulations had a "very sound scientific basis".
"The phased ease of the lockdown is to make sure that we change our behaviour," he said.

Perhaps another way to change peoples' behaviour was enforcement of mask wearing laws and social distancing regulations rather than lockdowns.
There would then have been a huge hunk of change out of R500 BILLION, the borrowed funds promised by the President to compensate for the lockdown.

In future, the people might trust their leaders and the so-called experts even less, while the sensationalist media will get some blame, and lose even more credibility.

False and News will become permanently joined!

The World Health Organization has placed the global death rate at less than 1%, which may have been what Mr. Trump was referring to, while noting that 20% of those infected will exhibit severe symptoms.
Ms. McEnany emphasized that the president takes the outbreak "very seriously."
While Mr. Trump has been accused of downplaying the spike to boost his reelection chances, media outlets have been charged with hyping the uptick in the caseload without offering perspective on the declining death toll.
"Continued efforts by top newspapers and large cable outlets to panic readers and views serve no one," Mr. Berenson said.
Washington Times 7 July 2020.

In the USA the really bad news is beginning to sink in

Every life is valuable, and none should ever be wasted. However when it comes to a choice between losing some, even many of our old, our sick, and unfortunately also our overweight, choices have to be made.

The choice was to try and save a limited number of the old and/or sick, and destroy our economies, or to lose a relatively few lives compared to the lives lost to vehicle accidents, TB, Aids, and even flu by merely just introducing a few inconvenient restrictions like masks , shields, hand washing and distancing.

Our leaders, and you choose the life saving because it sounded so noble, but you damaged our society, maybe for a generation, precipitated the worst economic downturn in history.

They still don't get it
'Dr. Anthony Fauci, a key member of the White House coronavirus task force, warned Tuesday of unnecessary "suffering and death" if states open their economies too early during the COVID-19 pandemic. Source Washington Times.
Don't proponents of lockdowns realise that in their hope to save every possible life they are destroying the society that supports those lives?

They are destroying businesses, factories, services, reducing the ability of our societies to afford health services as well as support for the poor. There is not much chance to "Make America Great Again" when its factories are going broke.

We are beginning to see the results of our stupidity.

Power corrupts, Absolute Power .... About Cigarettes in South Africa

Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma with Mzzotti

WHEN DLAMINI-ZUMA MET MAZZOTTI
Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, - NDZ - Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, seemingly, has had an influence on the prohibition of cigarettes. President Ramaphosa said last week that our ciggies would be available during Level 4. Without warning, ex wife of infamous President Zuma announced that this would no longer be the case, citing "2,000 submissions" which opposed lifting the ban - a number far smaller than that of pro-smoking South Africans, who perhaps didn't realise they were being hoodwinked.

Dlamini-Zuma, has created a massive problem for herself. In 2017, she was accused of working closely with corrupt cigarette manufacturer Adriano Mazzotti, who had previously admitted his company Carnilinx were complicit in fraud, money laundering and tax evasion. Carnilinx specialises in selling cigarette singles. They were also responsible for selling tobacco in an illegal manner. The pair's relationship was then detailed by Jacques Pauw.

The author of The President's Keepers alleges that NDZ still accepted campaign donations and merchandising deals from the fraudulent outfit during her bid for the presidency at Nasrec - despite knowing how Mazzotti and his cronies unashamedly broke the law. The Sunday Times was also able to prove that the minister and the tobacco kingpin became very cosy with each other.
DLAMINI-ZUMA'S LINKS TO ILLEGAL CIGARETTE TRADE RESURFACE
Dlamini-Zuma has had meetings with Mazzotti. She states they only held discussions once, but Pauw claims that their relationship was much more jovial than that, and wrote that two would often meet to discuss business. Chillingly, the book even hints that Dlamini-Zuma would eventually 'reward' Mazzotti once she was in a position of power:

"While monitoring the offices of Carnilinx, agents saw Dlamini-Zuma enter the premises, where Mazzotti presented clothing for her political campaign. NDZ has brushed off any warnings about her dealings with Mazzotti, claiming he 'has not been convicted of anything'."
"As we understand it, Mazzotti and Carnilinx pumped serious money into their relationship with Dlamini-Zuma, and they would want something in return in the future. With her [in a position of power], Mazzotti would expect his business interests to blossom." Source. Other Source.

The accounting is starting

24 April 2020. In Italy, about 45,000 relatives of coronavirus victims who believe not enough was done have joined a Facebook group called "NOI denunceremo" ("We will denounce you.")
Prosecutors in Italy are investigating whether errors by the authorities contributed to the country's deadliest clusters. and directors of one nursing home where residents died may potentially face charges of manslaughter.
Quote of note: "Phase 3 is going to be the criminalization of the contagion," said one journalist. "The pandemic is going to turn into a big collective trial."
The first signs of anger are starting to appear. As we go through the stages of grief how much could result in violence?

Why did most countries follow the China plan without considering options?

For years we have seen pictures, especially of Asians wearing masks whenever there was contagion.

Masks prevent disease spreading. But why was there no early worldwide call for the compulsory wearing of masks in public instead of lockdowns?

Almost certainly that given a choice most would have overwhelmingly voted for masks. The compulsory wearing masks have only become popular after lockdown.

"China has rolled out perhaps the most ambitious, agile and aggressive disease containment effort in history." Source Report of the WHO-China Joint Mission on Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Page 16

This strategy has been adopted by most countries except Sweden and a few others, none of whom had lots of infections.

The China plan may have been suitable in a state-controlled Communist society, but disastrous in a free enterprise society.

The China detractors are already accusing China of delayed and limited information sharing, such as the ages and known pre-existing medical conditions of the dead that could have helped the world understand the virus and prepare better.

The paranoid and the conspiracy believers are looking for evidence of virus manufacture, but there is no reasonable basis for this idea.

Western leaders might be wondering whether the plague was an unofficial attempt to damage their economies.

Freedoms will be lost

Police patrolling Manly beach Sydney after it was closed this April.
Photo by Mathew Abbott for the New York Times
Above and below are pictures of 4 armed police officers patrolling an empty beach in South Africa, forbidden to all in case you get too close to another person.
The next day there were about 12 police, still no-one else.

The easy acceptance of tracking technologies
"Australia now has its long-awaited COVID-19 trace tracking smartphone app, COVIDSafe."
On Sunday 26 April, Prime Minister Scott Morrison was been pushing its use as a national service, adding that Australians "need the COVIDSafe app as part of the plan to save lives and save livelihoods".
"The more people who download this important public health app, the safer they and their family will be, the safer their community will be and the sooner we can safely lift restrictions and get back to business and do the things we love," he said.

Technicians warn "Australia's COVIDSafe contact tracing story is full of holes and we should worry" Source ZDNet UK.

It's dangerous because much of the official messaging is about being "safe" and "protecting" you. It's misleading because there's no evidence that a so-called "contact tracing" app will be a net benefit.
Someone should've checked that up front.

The COVIDSafe strategy is technological hubris.
It is blind faith that an app can replace, or at least substantially enhance, the urgent labour-intensive detective work of contact tracing.

"We worry that contact tracing apps will serve as vehicles for abuse and disinformation, while providing a false sense of security."

COVIDSafe doesn't do what contact tracers do.
That won't pick up potential infection paths such as random unrelated people buying a takeaway muffin from the same cafe across several days, taking moments to do so.
It won't notice you sliding your hand along a dirty handrail. "Because most exposures flagged by the apps will not lead to infection, many users will be instructed to self-quarantine even when they have not been infected".

Even the name of the app, COVIDSafe, implies that it will in fact make you safe. It won't. It can't.
There's a reason the HIV/AIDS public health community has spent more than three decades talking about "safer sex" not "safe sex".

China?s Virus Apps May Outlast the Outbreak, Stirring Privacy Fears. 'People in China sign up for the virus-tracking system by submitting their personal information, recent travel and health status in one of a swath of apps. The software uses this and other data to assign a color code ? green, yellow or red ? that indicates whether the holder is an infection risk. Workers posted outside subways, offices and malls stop anyone without a green code from entering.' NY Times 27 May 2020.

Justified by the need to track COVID-19 carriers, the public has mostly has meekly accepted powers that were previously unacceptable, powers that will never be withdrawn.

Never again could it possible to have a secret meeting, unless you switch off or travel without your phone.
Eventually could this need to be tracked will lead to a future with a chip implanted in everyone so that your location will always be known?
SciFi as usual was way ahead.
There have reports around the world of heavy handed actions by the police and army to control restriction orders, not related to the above images.

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Medical Expertise and Research that should have been known

It is incredible that we as yet have no conclusive research on to what degree airborne droplet nuclei aerosols are the cause of infection.
With this information we might know to what extent masks can prevent contagion and where to concentrate our protection strategies.

High SARS-CoV-2 Attack Rate Following Exposure at a Choir Practice - Skagit County, Washington, March 2020 where transmission was likely facilitated by close proximity (within 6 feet) during practice and augmented by the act of singing. These transmissions were spread by a combination of droplets via fomite transmission - via an object, possibly aerosols and even sharing food. One news report claims that the droplets could stay in the air for 14 minutes, but nowhere in the CDC report is this claim, nor any claim as to the degree aerosols played in this transmission. I wish that news reports would just report what was said and not add other possibly false news in their reports.

It has been known for over 100 years since the Spanish Flu that sunshine and the open air are one of the best remedies for disease. Coronavirus and the Sun: a Lesson from the 1918 Influenza Pandemic.
Almost every mother knows the healthy benefits of playing outside, yet in Australia people were allowed to walk in the parks, but not stop and rest!
In South Africa no-one is allowed outside to walk or exercise except between 6 am and 9 am!
In California there were protests when the beaches were closed in one area but not another!

There is currently some suspicion of Chinese reports, but a recent report shows that only one in over 7300 coronavirus cases was transmitted outdoors. So why did the 'experts' not speak up when frightened authorities closed beaches and recreation areas in the USA, Australia and South Africa and other countries?

Your Coronavirus Test Is Positive. Maybe It Shouldn't Be
The usual diagnostic tests may simply be too sensitive and too slow to contain the spread of the virus.
The PCR test amplifies genetic matter from the virus in cycles; the fewer cycles required, the greater the amount of virus, or viral load, in the sample. The greater the viral load, the more likely the patient is to be contagious.

Coronavirus May Be a Blood Vessel Disease, Which Explains Everything

New study shows COVID-19 causes severe blood vessel damage.
In April, blood clots emerged as one of the many mysterious symptoms attributed to Covid-19, a disease that had initially been thought to largely affect the lungs in the form of pneumonia. Quickly after came reports of young people dying due to coronavirus-related strokes. Next it was Covid toes — painful red or purple digits.

What do all of these symptoms have in common? An impairment in blood circulation. Add in the fact that 40% of deaths from Covid-19 are related to cardiovascular complications, and the disease starts to look like a vascular infection instead of a purely respiratory one.

Months into the pandemic, there is now a growing body of evidence to support the theory that the novel coronavirus can infect blood vessels, which could explain not only the high prevalence of blood clots, strokes, and heart attacks, but also provide an answer for the diverse set of head-to-toe symptoms that have emerged.

"All these Covid-associated complications were a mystery. We see blood clotting, we see kidney damage, we see inflammation of the heart, we see stroke, we see encephalitis [swelling of the brain]," says William Li, MD, president of the Angiogenesis Foundation. "A whole myriad of seemingly unconnected phenomena that you do not normally see with SARS or H1N1 or, frankly, most infectious diseases."

"If you start to put all of the data together that's emerging, it turns out that this virus is probably a vasculotropic virus, meaning that it affects the [blood vessels]," says Mandeep Mehra, MD, medical director of the Brigham and Women's Hospital Heart and Vascular Center.

In a paper published in April in the scientific journal The Lancet, Mehra and a team of scientists discovered that the SARS-CoV-2 virus can infect the endothelial cells that line the inside of blood vessels. Endothelial cells protect the cardiovascular system, and they release proteins that influence everything from blood clotting to the immune response. In the paper, the scientists showed damage to endothelial cells in the lungs, heart, kidneys, liver, and intestines in people with Covid-19. "The concept that's emerging is that this is not a respiratory illness alone, this is a respiratory illness to start with, but it is actually a vascular illness that kills people through its involvement of the vasculature," says Mehra. Source

Separately, a 6 May report published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology described how using blood thinners in patients hospitalised with COVID-19 appeared to be protective and associated with better outcomes.Source



What happened to logical thinking?

The age-old remedy to contagion is to confine the infected. We confined the healthy! Logical, but also confusing.
What is going to happen when the quarantine ends, as it must. Why will it be different when the friend I could not see during the lockdown will now suddenly not infect me after the quarantine? What has changed?

I was taught that doing the same thing but expecting a different result was insanity or has my friend been coated with magical non-infecting pixie dust during the lock-down?


I fall into the Vulnerable category, and as such must take all the precautions when going out.
What if there is no early vaccine, no proven herd immunity, no new protection strategy?
Does that mean that I must isolate, lockdown or stay in place until whenever it is safe?
Does that mean that for a sizable part of the rest my expected lifespan, I must not do the things that I love, based on uncertain science?
I know the answer, but do others in my position?

Any suggestions will be appreciated to info@endco19.com

When are we going to accept that CO-19 is here for a long time?

The WHO is warning that CO-19 is not going away soon.
"This virus may become just another endemic virus in our communities, and this virus may never go away," Mike Ryan, head of the World Health Organization's health emergencies program, said at a news briefing. "H.I.V. has not gone away but we've come to terms with the virus and we have found the therapies and we have found the prevention methods, and people don't feel as scared as they did before."

"There are no promises in this and there are no dates," he said, tamping down expectations that the invention of a vaccine for the coronavirus will provide a quick and complete end to what has become a global health and economic calamity. A good vaccine might be developed, but there is no telling when, he added, calling it "a moon shot."

If infected people become immune or resistant, then when enough people have had the virus, there will be fewer left who can catch it or spread it, making outbreaks more manageable. But no one knows how long that will take.

"The current number of people in our population who've been infected is actually relatively low," Dr. Ryan said.

He also expressed cynicism about the prospects for eradication even with a vaccine, saying, "we have some perfectly effective vaccines on this planet that we have not used effectively for diseases we could have eradicated." He cited the recent outbreaks of measles around the world.

The only human disease that has been eradicated is smallpox.
NY Times 13 May 2020.

Going forward, a "more surgical, focused response," is a better way to cope with outbreaks than the sweeping shutdowns ordered around the world.
The Washington Times - Sunday, June 21, 2020.

What changes can we expect

Google will continue to be a big winner, since with the access to raw information and a better understanding of and by search engines, "laypeople" with effort can out-expert the experts. "An expert is a professional based on yesterdays knowledge," or "The truth changes every two hours".
Remote working and flexible work-times will be boosted, but face to face communication imparts more connection as we are social animals there will still be demand for offices and meetings.
Business, friends and families have been introduced zoom and similar software, which will boost visual digital communication.

The Dr Erickson of Kern County's video that was pulled from YouTube

27 April 2020. Video Link. Although the hypothesis of this video is almost certainly correct, the calculations and assumptions used to draw their conclusions are incorrect.
The Doctors have realized that something did not make sense, and have tried to prove their hypothesis the wrong way. At about 3 minutes Dr Erickson says that they have tested 5213, with 6.5% or 340 positives, while in the State of California there were 280,900 tests. With 12% or 33,865 were positives. He then extends this to say that 12% of California was positive.

If the tests had been random, he is correct, but those tested would have been the more likely to have come in contact or shown symptoms of the disease, making the positive tests % higher than if random tests. Against this, the positives were those that had COVID-19 at the time, not last week or last month. This reasoning makes the tests as a guide for the occurrence of the disease in the population barely relevant. If the tests had been for antibodies to the virus, then we could have valid data.

At 5.40 minutes he says that you have a 0.03 % chance of dying from CO-19. Well if divide 1237 deaths by 39.5 million the % of deaths of the Californian population is 0.003% or about one in 32,000.

Whatever way he gets his figures, the principle that he is trying to prove, namely that the government response to the minimal risk of death is illogical.

The Secondary Effects of Lock-Down

There are increasing reports of increased alcoholism, family assaults and molestation, suicide, missed medical checkups, all with lasting and lifelong effects.
Already, polio vaccination campaigns have been put on hold, and in some countries, routine immunization services are being scaled back or shut down.

WHO Director-General's opening remarks at the media briefing on COVID-19 - 27 April 2020.

Why is there no worldwide central database with information on every COVID-19 patient?

Deciding on the best government policies and to make an educated judgment by individuals and organisations also needs information, of which there is a paucity. We require answers to the below questions.

It is unbelievable that there is such limited information available to decision-makers, especially medical professionals who cannot decide on treatment options without statistics.
This is something that the World Health Organisation should have done, and should be doing urgently, not only for COVID-19 but for other contagious diseases.

  1. We know the number of daily confirmed cases from published test results, information that frightens governments and the public, but without numbers of hospitalised cases and their degree of illness, of limited practical use.

    We need to know the reason why the patient is in hospital, whether for isolation or illness, days in the hospital, age, sex, known pre-existing ailments, past vaccinations, medical history, nationality, recent travel, hospital location, daily hospital report as to condition and treatment, face touching habits, even outside weather temperature and humidity and more.

    With this information we will be better equipped to handle future contagions, as well as this one. 
  2. This information can be gathered on a worldwide website that would be simple to create.
    Only the hospital treating the patient would be able to access the patient's personal information, but all other information should be downloadable to a database or spreadsheet for analysis. 
  3. With this information we can answer questions between the relationships between age, health, culture, and treatment success. 
  4. Each patient would be allocated a number, with only the treating facility having the name and detailed access, with only limited personnel having semi-personal information. 
  5. Within a week of having the database running there would be useful information to help decision making. 
  6. Existing databases can easily be adapted.

There will be some loss of privacy, but being alive and partially exposed is a small price for getting the statistics.

Should be no problem since about half the citizens in Australia and other countries have gladly downloaded tracking software.

What are the Financial Consequences of Lockdowns

21 April 2020. Countries like South Africa, Australia, the USA are solving the economic crisis by spending money that they do not have.

Although SA has limited borrowing power, unlike most other Western countries SA has just announced a 500 billion Rand handout. The SA government is paying from partially stripping its workers' pension and unemployment funds, with no plans or chance to repay. Taking funds from these funds means that the money will not be available when the workers want these funds.
Additionally removing these funds from these organisations will cause them to liquidate their shareholdings and government bonds. This loss of funds will negatively affect share prices, as well as making it harder for the government to borrow funds from institutions locally.
Other sources of funds are expected grants from the World Bank with unknown strings, which will reduce the availability of future handouts.
The Reserve bank will almost certainly be effectively printing money, resulting in more cash chasing limited goods, which will cause steadily then quicker inflation, effectively stripping those who have saved of their savings.

All these handouts announced as if it is giving out a bounty to the people for being behaving well. It may not be the problem of this government, but how will we pay the piper?

Algeria's 'President Tebboune, however, turns out to be a tough, capable leader who, unlike many others, realizes that it's dangerous to pile up debt that will have to be paid off by generations yet unborn.
Last week he slashed the government budget by half to avoid mortgaging the nation's future to other nations.
How many other national leaders will have the courage to take the short term heat President Tebboune will face to guarantee that his country will not end up unable to pay its debts when the pandemic ends?

Other African countries can attest to the dangers of borrowing heavily from nations like China, as Beijing uses the current crisis to leverage concessions from nations addicted to its "help."
The leaders of these nations are on their knees begging the world community for charity, grants and loans to help finance unsustainable budgets spending they are afraid to cut.

Who dies?

27 April 2020. It might be time that the modern world re-examines its approach to death and the degree of its attempted postponement.
Is our society doing the right thing in spending large amounts of state funds on keeping very sick or elderly persons alive possibly just a bit longer because we can?
Would society be better off if we instead spend that money on eradicating a disease like malaria, subsidising safety features in cars, or providing healthy food for growing children?
Why do we value the life of even a sick, dying person so much that we will continue to devote resources to try one more procedure?
Should we consider more the concept of an earlier "Good Death", but one with dignity and often less pain?
There has been little discussion on these type of choices except in the NY Times article Restarting America Means People will die. .."
When the bad times come, it is the weakest animals that don't survive.
Disease is natural, and virus's like COVID-19 could be nature's way in a society with limited resources of speeding the removal of the weak who might not have lived long anyway?

Statistics, suggestions and comments

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