European Nations Entering Second Lockdown Because It Obviously Worked So Well Last Time

​Did I ever tell you the definition of insanity? It is doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result. It is turning on the faucet and expecting Pepsi to come out instead of water. It is throwing a ball high in the air and expecting it to remain there and never return. It is locking down your country again and expecting things to get better and for the virus to just stop existing or stop infecting or killing people.
 
This is what numerous European nations have opted to do, following a surge in Chinese coronavirus cases.
 
According to DW News, cases in Germany are at a record high and European nations are implementing new waves of strict, authoritarian and nonsensical lockdowns which will undoubtedly cause whatever economic progress they had been making in recent time to be utterly reversed.
 
Germany reported 18,681 new cases last Friday, which is the highest-recorded figure in a 24-hour period. As a result, German Chancellor Angel Merkel announced strict lockdown measures set to begin today and are supposed to last for four weeks (though we all know it will actually last longer than that).
 
DW News reports: “During this period, restaurants, bars, sports and cultural venues will be shuttered and there will be limits to public and private gatherings.”
 
As far as France goes, it entered a second lockdown last Friday, in which people are confined to an area 1 km from their homes, and require “written permission to leave except for going grocery shopping or attending school.”
 
Basically, France is treating its citizens like school children, making them require a “hall pass” to leave that 1 km area from their homes, for the most part.
 
In the UK, it’s not much better, as people are also being forced to largely shutter down, with most businesses being forced to close and people being barred from meeting indoors with people of other households, with police having the authority to break up Christmas dinners (which is still TWO MONTHS out) if officers believe Chinese coronavirus rules are being broken.
 
I would like to point something out that I briefly talked about in my last article, about the economic boom that we saw in the third quarter of 33.1% annualized GDP growth. In that article, I pointed out how Italy and Spain were at -11.2% and -10.9% from where they were economically pre-pandemic respectively.
 
I used those two countries because they were the ones worst off. I assume they will follow their fellow European nations in imposing stricter lockdowns if they begin seeing another spike in cases, but my point in general is that these countries absolutely will basically commit economic suicide by locking down even more strictly once again.
 
France was at -10.6% before this. The UK at -9.7%. Germany at -6.3%. All those numbers will only get worse through more lockdowns which are entirely nonsensical because people shouldn’t be focusing on case numbers, but rather, death numbers. When it comes to those, if the virus were as bad as people act like it is, those numbers would be far higher than they actually are.
 
Germany has over 500,000 cases but only a little over 10,000 deaths. France has well over a million cases but only around 40,000 deaths. The UK has around a million cases and almost 50,000 deaths. Italy, over 600,000 cases and around 40,000 deaths.
 
It’s not great by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s not the deadly, plague-like virus that has been advertised, and yet, despite the science and the evidence, they are choosing to lock down again because they are seeing a bit of a resurgence? And do they think the initial lockdown was what helped them out originally that they are going back to that well again?
 
Poland (granted, it has tens of millions less people than these other countries, but still) has seen over 300,000 cases, which is not good, but only a little over 5,000 deaths. Sweden (another low-population country, but the point is still applicable) has only had a little over 100,000 cases and around 6,000 deaths, with new deaths every day being close to 0. Neither of these countries ever locked down.
 
“But Freddie, you can’t use low-density countries and compare them to high-density countries to suggest that lockdowns are ineffective.” And that is a fair argument. However, the point that lockdowns don’t help is still awfully applicable.
 
Instead of comparing low-density countries with high-density countries, how about we compare Sweden with a place that has a comparable population density: the state of Illinois?
 
Sweden has a population of around 10 million while Illinois has a population of around 12 million. In the following chart, you will find the following:

​You can see that Sweden, painted in blue, had quite the spike in the beginning around late March, early April, but after that, it steadily came down. Illinois, painted in orange, also saw a spike around the same time, then another one in June (wonder what happened *ahem* BLM/Antifa nonsense *ahem*), and then it began to tick down and then back up over the last month or so.
 
Sweden has 586 cumulative deaths per million, +6 since September 18th, while Illinois has 785 cumulative deaths per million, +104 since September 18th.
 
Sweden never locked down and has developed an immunity to the virus, for the most part. Illinois, under Democrat rule, has tried and failed to contain the virus through similar draconian measures as numerous European nations and things are getting worse and worse for them.
 
While there are geographical differences between the two government entities, it is clear that Sweden’s and Poland’s decision to not lock down has served them well. They virtually have no need to worry about the virus and their economies are some of the best in recent time. Still not as good as they were before the pandemic hit, but nowhere near as bad as other European nations and they aren’t setting themselves up for years upon years of economic misery.
 
The vast majority of European nations could take a page out of Sweden’s and Poland’s book in how to handle a virus. You don’t quarantine the healthy. You take appropriate measures that don’t equate to shooting yourself repeatedly in the stomach. You cannot control the virus; you have to be able to live and deal with it.
 
And that last point is not a “mean” thing to say. We live and deal with all sorts of diseases every day. The Chinese coronavirus is not the world’s first disease. To this day, we do not have a cure or a vaccine for HIV or AIDS and people have learned to live with it, for the most part. Magic Johnson tested positive for HIV 30 years ago and he is still alive, still active (to an extent) and has learned to live with the virus and it thankfully has not developed into AIDS.
 
It’s not “mean” or “rude” or altogether a negative thing to say we have to deal and live with this virus, because we also have to deal and live with the flu virus, with other versions of the coronavirus, with influenza, with respiratory issues, organ issues, skin issues, bone issues, etc.
 
It’s a part of life to live with diseases, but the Left has somehow convinced people that this virus is something you can outright beat into non-existence and the way to do this is to give up your basic freedoms in exchange for your “safety”. Biden, in one of the debates, said that you “die” with the virus, to counter Trump’s “live” with the virus. And somehow, that’s a good moment for Biden?
 
This is a virus which 99.9% of people survive from (and even that is a generous figure), so it’s not a virus most people “die” with. It’s a virus, it’s here, we have to deal with it and live with it. It’s not gonna just magically go away, but a lot of people seem to have deluded themselves into believing some sort of TV or movie plot can happen where the vaccine arrives and everyone takes it and it all works out in the end and we all live happily ever after.
 
Reality is not kind to such people. We have to learn to live and deal with the virus because the science shows that it’s not even particularly deadly, not more so than other things like the flu. We are accustomed to living with all those other viruses and diseases, but somehow, it is too much to ask people to do the same with a similar virus? What makes the Chinese coronavirus so special that we have to stop everything and lock everything down (which as I just pointed out, does not work)? What makes it so special that we can’t live and deal with it and it is unconscionable to even suggest that people do so?
 
The fear of the virus is worse than the virus, this much has been perfectly clear to me for a long time. And THAT is what we have to beat, more so than the virus.
 
But at any rate, I hope that these European countries come to their senses and stop their idiotic lockdowns, or at least, once they have their respective elections, the citizens kick these idiots to the curb in favor of more logical and scientifically-focused leaders (as in, they follow the actual evidence, not what far-Left scientists claim is evidence and science).
 
Proverbs 29:12
“If a ruler listens to falsehood, all his officials will be wicked.”