Some interesting data from a person selling indoor air filters:
Here’s a wild fact. The air inside your home is 3-5 times more polluted than the air outside. And in some cases it can be up to 100 times more polluted… Crazy right?!
Outdoor air pollution from automobiles, factories, or wildfires is an obvious threat in some areas, but indoor air pollution is a seriously underestimated problem no matter where you live, because we spend most of our time indoors.
Clean air is essential for health and to help prevent respiratory illness, pulmonary problems, certain types of cancer, and to reduce the toxic load on your body.
Government officials in Sweden announced this week that the government expects to maintain its mild restrictions on gatherings “for at least another year” to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.
Unlike most other European countries and nations around the world, Sweden declined to initiate a nationwide lockdown or mask mandates, opting instead for a policy that restricted large gatherings and relied on social responsibility to slow transmission of the virus.
For months, Sweden was criticized for its decision to forego an economic lockdown.
“Sweden becomes an example of how not to handle COVID-19,” CBS declared in its headline in a July article.
Sweden had become a “cautionary tale,” the New York Times declared the same month.
“They are leading us to catastrophe,” The Guardian warned in March.
Dozens of similar examples can be found. With every passing week, however, it’s becoming more clear that Sweden got the virus right. For starters, Swedish officials point out that even if lockdowns did save lives, they cannot long be endured.
“The measures that are being taken in Europe are not sustainable, we’re trying to find a level that is steady and that keeps the spread down. We can’t get rid of it, but we can keep it down at a reasonable level,” Johan Carlson, the director general of Sweden’s public health agency, said in an interview with public broadcaster SVT on Sunday.
It’s also worth pointing out that Sweden has avoided some of the economic carnage of its European neighbours experienced by implementing harsh lockdowns. In August, the BBC pointed out that Sweden’s economy experienced much less damage during the pandemic.
Both of these facts help explain why Sweden has not witnessed the widespread social unrest other nations have seen.
“A certain fatigue is setting in, this has been going on for a number of months,” Carlson admitted. “But we are not seeing anger or aggression, we’re not seeing the same reactions as in Europe.”
This should come as no surprise. Life in Sweden is still relatively normal. People never stopped going to restaurants and bars, pools or parks. Schools and places of business remained open. Hence, the mass protests, violence, and spikes of mental health deterioration, drug overddoses, and suicide nations around the world have witnessed in 2020 have been notably absent in Sweden.
Perhaps most importantly, Sweden’s “lighter touch” seems to have tamed COVID-19. While many European countries that implemented lockdowns are witnessing a resurgence of the virus, Sweden’s cases and deaths remain a stark contrast to other European nations.
We stand at a precipice of extinction. Will we allow our humanity as living, conscious, intelligent, autonomous beings to be extinguished by a greed machine that does not know limits and is unable to put a break on its colonisation and destruction? Or will we stop the machine and defend our humanity, freedom, and autonomy to protect life on earth?
There is a lot of truth in this. The easiest thing to to to start feeling better is to go for a walk and look at things. After that, the next easiest is to start eating more healthy foods. Just a fish oil capsule a day is a good start. Almost anyone can add that to their diet.
You might find them hard to stomach but Brussels sprouts could do wonders for your heart.
We all know that vegetables are good for us, but broccoli, Brussels sprouts and cabbage have just shot to the top of the list.
Researchers at Edith Cowan University and The University of Western Australia have found that eating them every day could cut your risk of blood vessel disease by up to 46 per cent.
Edith Cowan University’s Dr Lauren Blekkenhorst said the study involved an analysis of the diets of 684 older women who ate 45 grams of the vegetables every day.
Previous studies had found that people who consumed more of these vegetables reduced their risk of heart attack and stroke, but researchers weren’t sure why.
“We have now found that older women consuming higher amounts of cruciferous vegetables every day have lower odds of having extensive calcification on their aorta,” Dr Blekkenhorst said.
“One particular constituent found abundantly in cruciferous vegetables is vitamin K which may be involved in inhibiting the calcification process that occurs in our blood vessels,” she said.
Blood vessel disease caused by the build-up of calcium deposits can reduce circulation and increase the risk of heart attack or stroke.
A survey of people who had contracted SARS-CoV-2 found, “Overall, the majority of patients had robust adaptive immune responses, regardless of disease severity. These data support the possibility of achieving protective immunity through natural infection…”
The Great Barrington Declaration – As infectious disease epidemiologists and public health scientists we have grave concerns about the damaging physical and mental health impacts of the prevailing COVID-19 policies, and recommend an approach we call Focused Protection.
Coming from both the left and right, and around the world, we have devoted our careers to protecting people. Current lockdown policies are producing devastating effects on short and long-term public health. The results (to name a few) include lower childhood vaccination rates, worsening cardiovascular disease outcomes, fewer cancer screenings and deteriorating mental health – leading to greater excess mortality in years to come, with the working class and younger members of society carrying the heaviest burden. Keeping students out of school is a grave injustice.
Keeping these measures in place until a vaccine is available will cause irreparable damage, with the underprivileged disproportionately harmed.
(Tom: The 30% drop in childhood deaths suggests that lowered vaccination rates is a positive rather than negative outcome but let’s not quibble with one of their arguments when the main thrust is correct.)
