Thomas Aksnes, Founder & Scientific Director of Health Optimizing
The polarity has seldom been as prominent as with the question of how to handle COVID-19. A lot of people believe that COVID-19 is an apocalyptic pandemic that must be dealt with by locking down society, preventing social interaction, and enforcing mandatory mask use. Others are more focused on statistics, facts, and evaluating more than just single pieces of the jigsaw. Scientists in the latter group conclude that COVID-19 is quite comparable to a normal flu.
Tens of thousands of medical researchers and doctors are protesting against the lockdown measures (through the likes of the Great Barrington Declaration and the World Doctors Alliance), while it seems far fewer medical researchers and doctors are publicly supporting the lockdown measures. Whether you believe COVID-19 is worse than the flu or not, there is at least one fact that nobody seems to disagree on: The better your health is, the more mild your symptoms will be if you contract the Coronavirus.
Those at great health with the longest life expectancy are statistically more likely to die from a lightning strike, than COVID-19. That doesn’t mean COVID-19 is completely harmless, but most people have no reason to fear the Coronavirus more than the normal flu.
A lot of people are testing positive for Coronavirus without having or developing symptoms of the COVID-19 disease. There are only two possible explanations of that: Either the COVID-19 test has false positives, or it’s possible for the immune system to deal with the virus without giving you any symptoms. Both are occurring on a huge magnitude, and it is the latter that you can easily influence to improve your odds.
In Norway, between 900-1700 deaths are attributed to the flu virus every year. As of mid-November 2020, 300 deaths had been attributed to COVID-19 in Norway (because the death occurred within 30 days after a positive COVID-19 test). According to FHI (Norwegian Institute of Public Health), more than 90% of them died with it, not from it, so the real death toll from just COVID-19 was less than 30.
The total mortality rate in Norway has not spiked due to COVID-19, and neither has the world average mortality rate. Therefore, the most important criteria of calling it a deadly pandemic is not met, thus, the intrusive lockdown measures are not called for.
The main reason people are more afraid of COVID-19 than the flu is because the first impression is hard to shake. This viral threat was originally introduced in mass media as potentially very deadly, with the risk of a dangerous pandemic outbreak. It wasn’t possible to know any better at the time, so measures were based on predictive models that painted the picture of millions of deaths from COVID-19 alone. However, these predictions turned out to be completely wrong. Since then, the evidence shows that COVID-19 is not nearly as dangerous as originally anticipated, and in Norway, it’s even comparable to a mild flu. Furthermore, as the virus evolves, statistics show that it gets less and less deadly like most viruses do during a viral season. There are some companies and organisations who profit significantly from what’s currently happening, who would naturally have an agenda to continue the mass hysteria.
However, the vast majority of the population are suffering from the current measures, and it’s time to wake up and look at the facts, rather than remain a victim to an agenda.
The COVID-19 season is lasting longer than the normal flu season, mainly because lockdown measures prolong the process. According to the World Health Organization, that is what lockdown measures are for; to slow down the development so there is time to restructure and prepare for what is inevitably going to happen. Lockdown is not a measure to eradicate COVID-19, and that must be kept in mind while considering the negative consequences of lockdown.
Some seem to think that, despite the consequences, it’s okay to slow down the process until a vaccine is available, but there are two major flaws with that argument:
- The people who are not in risk groups for getting seriously ill from COVID-19 are likely to have more risks associated with the vaccine, than with the virus itself. Furthermore, none of the 4 leading COVID-19 vaccines will make you less contagious and spread less virus (as pointed out by the renowned Professor of Virology & Genetics, Terje Ingemar Traavik), which is why the following point is even more relevant.
- The people who are in the highest risk groups cannot take the vaccine anyway, because the associated risks are too high. People who are at the end of their lives are coming forward saying that the only thing they have to live for is precious time with their family. Many claim they would prefer not to live if they cannot have that. (Younger people in high-risk groups would rather live, but since they cannot take the vaccine and the vaccine is not making other people less contagious, their best option is to take measures to improve their health and reduce the risk.)
Some argue that protesting lockdown is inconsiderate to those in high-risk groups, but the reality is on the contrary. Isn’t it inconsiderate to support shutting down society and extending the duration of this year’s viral season for those in high-risk groups? Wouldn’t the inconsideration even be to the point of selfishness when this is done with the only benefits of managing irrational fear and hoping to avoid a week sick in bed?
Lockdown is not serving the population. Companies are going bankrupt, people are losing their jobs, and mental health is on the biggest decline in a very long time.
Why are measures chosen with the goal of slowing down the progression, and thus, prolonging the problem, when it is causing so much damage to our society? It is easier to handle the criticism for overreacting than criticism for not doing enough, and this must be factored in before we judge politicians by their intrusive dictatorial moves.
Washing hands and not coughing people in the face are great measures, but preventing basic social interaction, forcing public mask use, and closing down society is not. Doctors, scientists, and people suffering from the restrictions are standing up against these measures. However, nobody seems to argue against the most effective measure; to give your immune system the capacity to handle such a viral threat. Why is optimizing your health and immune capacity not publicly promoted as the primary solution, instead of measures with questionable effects and serious consequences?
A good social life is well proven to be important for health, yet this is what people are being deprived of now. Exercise is also known to be beneficial for health, yet gyms and sports activities are currently not allowed to stay open. Vitamin D3 supplementation is documented to improve your immune system’s ability to deal with any viral infections, including COVID-19. Yet there is no public recommendation for supplementing Vitamin D or checking if your levels are low.
Instead, masks are made mandatory in some places, which even the FHI recommended against a couple of months ago (arguing that the research did not show substantial benefits of public mask use, and in several common scenarios, would even increase the risks). The mask recommendations changed radically after a poll showed that 40% of Norwegians would not take the COVID-19 vaccine, but the science did not change. Masks are effective as a symbol of the threat illusion, and to create enough hassle for people to welcome the vaccine when it comes. Unfortunately, this seems more agenda based than science-based, and it is time to choose more effective measures free from negative consequences.
Some claim that masks are effective, based on the reduction of aerosols that can be measured. This is the relevant effect needed when a surgeon is conducting open-surgery and needs to prevent droplets with oral bacteria from entering the patient’s sterile operation wound. However, one cannot reach a true conclusion for mask use in public by looking at a singular piece of a larger jigsaw puzzle.
The Coronavirus is only contagious when entering the nose or mouth, not through the skin. Traces of the virus exist on doorknobs and other objects for hours after contact, so chances are high that you will get it on your hands from time to time.
When you touch the mask without washing your hands first, you transfer the virus to the one area where you can easily contract it.
Additionally, when wearing a mask you recycle and breathe in part of the air you previously exhaled. As a consequence, you inhale less oxygen and more carbon dioxide and polluted air than usual. In the unlikely event that you have Coronavirus in your exhaled air, you also recycle that and increase your viral load. In the United States, the CDC informed that 70.6% of people with COVID-19 had been using the mask at the time of contracting the virus, while 3.9% had not been using the mask at all. Many real-life studies have been conducted to identify whether mask use by the general public is a feasible measure for reducing viral exposure, and the scientific conclusion is that it is not.
The bottom line is that the best advice in this situation is to do what you can to optimize your health, to improve your odds of having little to no symptoms if you attract the virus. Now more than ever, you should eat extra healthy, supplement vitamin D3, vitamin C, and zinc, and optimize your lifestyle in every way possible. This is also the time to do what you can to resolve any underlying health challenges, such as pre-diabetes, obesity, asthma, and cardiovascular problems.
Many people have underlying factors they are not even aware of, and it has never been more important to have all-encompassing assessments to find out if you are at risk. Whether you already knew about your underlying challenges or not, your focus should be on addressing them by the roots; to find the combination of causative factors and resolve them in the best way possible. That is what we specialise in at the Health Optimizing clinics globally. We utilise 33 state-of-the-art technologies to assess up to 20,000 factors in the body and address the causative factors with an optimal combination of therapies.
It’s better to be proactive and find out whether or not you will have the capacity to deal with the Coronavirus easily before you contract it. If you don’t have the optimal capacity, there will never be a better time than now to deal with the roots of your challenges and improve your lifestyle. The risk of not regaining good health after having had COVID-19 is also profoundly reduced by optimizing your health. The only “side effect” is to improve your health in other areas too, as well as gaining more energy and joy in life.
If you’d like to find out how to get involved and redefine the medical paradigm, please email: change@healthoptimizing.com
About The Author
Thomas Aksnes is the Founder & Scientific Director of Health Optimizing. For more information about the author, visit www.ThomasAksnes.com
Discover the future of health at www.HealthOptimizing.com
1 reply on “COVID-19 lockdown: Is there a better way?”
Great article Thomas, thank you!