COVID19: NZ can follow Sweden but avoid their mistakes
Updated: Oct 26, 2020
(Updated 26/10/20)
"Hi Gary,
I would say NZ can definitely do what Sweden has done, except learn from Sweden’s mistakes and do a better job of protecting the elderly, by allowing the disease to circulate among the young and healthy so that herd immunity builds up while taking stringent measures to prevent spread in to care homes for the elderly.
Additionally, it would be very easy for the government to recommend that everyone take a vitamin D supplement 3000-5000 IU, since that seems to offer a large amount of protection and significantly decrease the risk of severe disease. People living in care homes should definitely all be getting a supplement.
Best wishes,"
Sebastian
02/10/20
Gary:
Dr Sebastian Rushworth is a frontline emergency doctor working in Stockholm, Sweden. He has written extensively on Sweden's experience with COVID19. Sweden is almost over the pandemic, with the country pretty much back to business as usual.
Whether or not it is intended, most of the rest of the world, New Zealand excluded, is grudgingly following Sweden's lead. The virus has been spreading. The curve is flattening. For New Zealand, we are not building any immunity.
I have been saying for some months now, that NZ can be out of its isolation within a month or two if we were to action what Dr Rushworth is advocating, plus the measures in this escape plan:
https://www.garymoller.com/post/how-to-escape-from-our-covid10-prison-the-plan
The key to living with all infectious diseases, current and future, is to improve population immune health. The fact is that we are now a species with declining robustness. As a population, we are becoming increasingly vulnerable to all diseases, degenerative and infective and not just COVID19.
Think about this: even a tiny positive shift in population health means that it will dramatically reduce the number of people at the most vulnerable end of the population curve, especially if we target those most at risk of all disease. These are the elderly, those living in poverty and those with chronic health issues. We could include shift workers as well and anyone on medication such as for asthma, diabetes, depression and cardiovascular disease.
A small aside: old age is not really a risk factor. An older person who is well-nourished should have a robust immune system, primed over many years by countless exposures to pathogens. The problem for many of the elderly today is the combination of malnutrition plus excessive medication.
This article is relevant:
https://www.garymoller.com/post/is-this-the-real-cause-of-the-dementia-epidemic
A person with robust health has little to fear from all but the worst of infections. Our strategy for this and future pandemics must include measures to improve population health. As suggested by Dr Rushworth, this may be as simple as ensuring each New Zealander has adequate daily nutrients such as vitamin D, zinc, vitamin C and selenium - there are many more. Simple! Refer to this article.
https://www.garymoller.com/post/how-to-escape-from-our-covid19-prison-pt-3 - our immune system
For those who are the most vulnerable, such as the elderly in rest homes and the immune-compromised, we might go one step further by administering a very low-dose prophylactic anti-viral and do so for as long as it takes for population herd immunity to happen. This would be voluntary for all. There is no need at all for compulsory medical procedures.
To do this properly, politicians and health bureaucrats need to get out of the medical clinics and, instead, empower our doctors so they can make decisions that are best for each of their individual patients. Read this: