Publisher’s note: We continue to monitor Sweden, Belarus and Taiwan as three countries which have adopted different responses to the “coronavirus” other than “lockdown.” Granted, every culture and every country is unique – AND it is vital to track different national responses to this unprecedented situation to see what we can learn. And on the subject of lockdown, this OP/ED was sent along by a Vermont neighbor one week ago, and it haunts us at night. Finally, here are thirteen studies that explore the negative consequences of “social distancing” – very powerful. We humans are evolutionarily designed to be social creatures, and the negative impacts of “social distancing” is a story vastly underreported in the MSM.

SWEDEN “shatters lockdown model as curves stay flat, population found exposed but not sick, German MD calls Corona “Lockdown” measures “collective suicide based on a spook.”

“There is no crisis, no death spikes, no national emergency, no shortage of hospital beds. Listening to the press conference, (twice) and transcribing every word was like watching paint dry. And with each passing moment, the story became clearer and clearer to me: Sweden can save the world right now.“

SWEDEN + BELARUS: “It’s Game Over, And The Swedish-Belarusian Herd Immunity Model has Won.

“Game over. The Swedish-Belarussian model has won. Herd immunity is the way to go. Study and random testing shows that 600,000 or one-third of Stockholm county’s population have had the corona infection. They had no symptoms or so little they did not even know they had it.Some 1,500 died, mortality 0.25%. In tough competition, the seasonal flu is still leading. 0.25% is share of those infected, the mortality to the whole population would be 0.015%, which would make the seasonal flu win hands down.“

TAIWAN: No Lockdown, No Closed Businesses, Non-WHO Member, And Relatively Unaffected by COVID-19.

“Johns Hopkins University had predicted that Taiwan would have the second most COVID-19 cases in the world, due to its close proximity to Mainland China.

But astonishingly, in spite of being only 80 miles from the coast of China with over 400,000 of its 24 million citizens working in China, as of mid-April, the country only had 400 cases of COVID-19, and only 6 deaths. And the vast majority of their 400 cases came into the country from abroad.

All of this has happened without shutting down the country with lock downs, and with almost all of its businesses continuing to operate. Is Taiwan doing something else the rest of the world is largely missing?

This question will no doubt be asked for months or even years into the future, but it is a question well worth asking, given the devastating effects to the economy that have resulted from more restrictive measures such as the United States took.

The first thing to note is that while President Trump is now looking seriously at pulling out of the World Health Organization, Taiwan was never part of it. They were not allowed to join due to the WHO’s pro-China stance.“