Sounds like you don't understand how proper public health policies in a pandemic-- that many European nations have been following --- operate. First the national government sets uniform science-based policies that various regions and cities must follow. The restrictive actions taken in a community are based on the level of prevalence of the disease in the community. When a disease is highly prevalent more restrictions are in place; when the prevalence drops restrictions are removed. Typically in a layered manner. Factors such as hospital utilization also play a role in decisions Similarly decisions about holding remote or in-person schooling are made based on community prevalence of a disease. And the decisions on health protocols within a school for masking, distancing, cleaning, etc. are made in reflection to community prevalence. We constantly see uninformed clowns pushing that some region of a country in Europe is not using masks in schools -- without understanding the schools dropped masks only when prevalence of Covid in the region was low. The national government also needs to set consistent policies on incoming travel (this is not left to the regions) and the requirements for testing, quarantine, etc. to ensure that incoming travelers are not spreading the pandemic disease in the country. The actual implementation of proper public health protocols has varied widely by country. Some countries have performed quite poorly like the U.S. despite having leading class medical facilities and access to vaccines & medication. This poor result is driven by politics -- especially the politics of individuals who push narratives for their political gain over public health -- which has undermined our entire nation and made us a very visible failure.
Right! You call Denmark a success. And if this is what a success is: Then I agree, I guess I don't understand your definition of "success".
It would be on chart for deaths and the health system stress. Once I figured out Perry Hall, getting the rest was easy. Feeling tempted...
Populist nations fared much worse during Covid outbreak, new research says https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/27/pop...orse-during-covid-outbreak-research-says.html A new study has compared the response of populist and non-populist governments during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. More than 40 countries were included in the analysis, with the U.S., the U.K. and India being deemed populist-led nations. In 2020, excess deaths associated with Covid were more than twice as high in populist governed countries than in non-populist governed countries, researchers found. Risk of death from Covid-19 is significantly higher in countries ruled by populist governments, a new study has found. Published Thursday in the Journal of Political Institutions and Political Economy, the peer-reviewed study, carried out by an international team of researchers, found that populist governments had performed worse than non-populist governments at handling the crisis. Researchers analyzed excess deaths in 2020, the first year of the pandemic. They found that excess mortality was, on average, more than twice as high in populist-governed countries than in non-populist governed countries. Before the pandemic, a so-called “populist wave” — which saw radical and anti-establishment leaders, including former U.S. President Donald Trump, rise to power — swept across many countries. Populism was defined in the study as an ideology that considers society to be “separated into two homogeneous and antagonistic groups, ‘the pure people’ versus ‘the corrupt elite,’ and which argues that politics should be an expression of the general will of the people.” Of the 42 countries included in the analysis, 11 were classified as populist-governed in 2020: the U.S., Brazil, the Czech Republic, Hungary, the U.K., India, Israel, Mexico, Poland, Slovakia and Turkey. The countries that were considered non-populist governed included Japan, Canada and Sweden. Countries included in the analysis were OECD members or BRICS nations (one of five major emerging economies). For every 100 expected deaths in non-populist countries, Covid caused an additional 8 deaths, researchers found. But in populist-led countries, Covid led to an additional 18 deaths for every 100 non-Covid deaths. The study’s authors attributed this largely to higher “citizen mobility” in populist-governed countries, which was calculated using Google data to determine how busy certain places — like grocery stores — were during the pandemic. They found that in populist-led countries, individuals’ movement was twice as high as it was in non-populist led countries. Two reasons were identified as being behind this disparity. First, the study said, populist governments were less likely to implement long-term, unpopular mitigation policies that infringed on the public’s ability to live relatively normal lives — even at risk of allowing the virus to spread. Populist governments’ communications on Covid were also “designed to downplay the severity of the pandemic and to discredit scientific findings,” the Kiel Institute, a German think tank involved in the research, found. Citizens of these countries were consequently less likely to take the virus seriously and make choices to limit the risk of contracting or spreading Covid. “While the policy response of non-populist governments is dependent on the positive test ratio, that is, the spread of virus, the policy response of populist governments is indifferent to the spread of the virus and significantly lower at high positive test ratios,” the research paper said. In June 2020, when the U.K. had the highest Covid death toll in Europe, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson defended his government’s response, telling lawmakers: “I take full responsibility for everything this Government has been doing in tackling coronavirus and I’m very proud of our record.” Earlier this month, the U.K. became the first country in Europe to record 150,000 deaths from the coronavirus. “The numbers are clear — populists are the worst crisis managers in the Covid-19 pandemic and responsible for many avoidable deaths in the countries they govern,” Michael Bayerlein, a researcher on populism at the Kiel Institute for the World Economy and co-author of the report, said in a press release Thursday. “The high excess mortality is driven by too much mobility, which in turn is caused by a lack of restrictions and anti-Covid-19 propaganda. The only good news [is] the clear link between mobility and death toll also means people can protect themselves by voluntarily limiting their contacts during the pandemic.”
The chart in the article provides a slider so you can easily extend the timeline. This was just a screen shot of an active chart at the default it comes up in the article.
Because when you move it over, countries like Sweden get a whole lot better. Then there's this: The study’s authors attributed this largely to higher “citizen mobility” in populist-governed countries, which was calculated using Google data to determine how busy certain places — like grocery stores — were during the pandemic. They found that in populist-led countries, individuals’ movement was twice as high as it was in non-populist led countries. So "populist" countries allowed for more freedom. Which of course is the point - COVID isn't the only variable in the equation.
Johnson was always a populist but its interesting how this married up to the strategy he openly admitted to employing: 'Gaffes' There was no sign whatsoever of the contrite or apologetic impression Boris Johnson has sometimes given in the last few days - a display perhaps designed to show those who want him gone that he will fight and fight. It's hardly the first time he's had to wriggle through controversies. Here he was confessing to his strategy many years ago: "I've got a brilliant new strategy, which is to make so many gaffes that nobody knows which one to concentrate on," he told the BBC's Booktalk in 2006. "They cease to be newsworthy, you completely out-general the media in that way, and they despair." He added: "You shell them, you pepper the media... you've got to pepper their positions with so many gaffes that they're confused. "It's like a helicopter throwing out chaff, and then you steal on quietly and drop your depth charges wherever you want to drop them." Media caption, Johnson in 2006: "Make so many gaffes that nobody knows which one to concentrate on." But the odds are so different now. He's the PM, not the London mayor or a backbench MP, and his leadership has been significantly damaged in the past couple of months. www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-60159226