The following is an October 2020 article published by the Swiss Policy Research (SPR) which looks at the health outcomes of COVID-19 in Belarus. As the SPR article noted, Belarus is an important case because unlike most countries in Europe and around the world, Belarus imposed the softest anti-coronavirus measures, and life continued as usual even as lockdowns were happening all over the world. To understand how lenient Belarus has been, SPR said, “Even coronavirus pragmatics like Sweden looked almost paranoid compared to Belarus”.

Belarus has been under fire in Western media as long-time president Alexander Lushenko ignored the worldwide panic about the new coronavirus. Experts were waiting for catastrophe to descend on the country, but so far, Belarus seems to be succeeding. Corporate media stopped reporting about coronavirus developments in Belarus sometime in May.

As of October 22, 2020, SPR said that the country has reported only 680 COVID deaths. The authors say that this could possibly be due to a relatively young population and a lesser number of individuals belonging to the at-risk population.

Editor’s Note: Belarus never implemented any of the draconian coronavirus measures in other countries. There were no lockdowns, no mask mandates, no social distancing policies that penalized citizens for non-compliance. Mass gatherings continued on as usual, citizens wore masks or socially distanced only when they want to. These policies are coming from a government led by “Europe’s last dictator”. What irony it is, that in this “pandemic”, the democratic countries are the ones that prevented its citizens from spending time with family and friends, breathing fresh air, and freely expressing their points of view.

Belarus’ current statistics speaks for the success of its strategy. As of February 3, 2021, the country has recorded almost 250,000 coronavirus cases with 1,737 deaths. Recovery rate is at 94.87%, perhaps one of the highest in the world. Its 7-day moving average deaths has never gone beyond 10.^[1]https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/belarus/ The country has also reported a decline in coronavirus-associated pneumonia cases and many hospitals have already returned to their normal operation.^[2] https://eng.belta.by/society/view/belarus-reports-decline-in-coronavirus-associated-pneumonia-cases-136818-2021/

A study published by BMJ ^[3]https://www.bmj.com/content/370/bmj.m3543 in September 2020 offered some insights to Belarus’ success. Aside from the country’s young population, Belarus has had in place for years an outstanding process for large scale epidemiological problems like the SARS-CoV-2. Its health system was robust, with 11 hospital beds per 1,000 people – a number which outranks both UK and Germany. The large hospital capacity allowed the country to isolate infected people and expertly address life-threatening cases early on, hence decreasing the need to quarantine entire populations. Hospital workers were provided with protective suits and other equipment. In essence, Belarus utilized a localized and medical-based approach to a medical problem. It utilized its current resources to be able to provide rapid response to a potentially catastrophic health concern.

Meanwhile, countries with the longest lockdowns in the world such as the Philippines and UK still preoccupy themselves with increasing coronavirus cases, even as recorded deaths continue to fall. Citizens continue to suffer the psychological, social, and economic impacts of extreme coronavirus measures. Children, who have never been at any risk of the coronavirus, have become collateral damage for the unscientific decisions our governments are making. When we look at countries like Belarus and Sweden, we will begin to wonder why we continue on our current path despite the dismal results we are getting.

It is illogical medically speaking, but if we look beyond the medical aspect, we will begin to see the logic of these draconian policies. COVID-19, in the Philippines (and perhaps around the world, too) has become a perfect control mechanism. It provided governments an excuse to prevent people from protesting and expressing opposing views [look at these many instances of dissent, and how the government has acted in each case Thousands protest in Amsterdam against new coronavirus lockdowns, August 29 Berlin protest on COVID-19 lockdowns brings huge numbers of people to the streets, 10,000+ gather in London to protest COVID-19 restrictions]. It gave governments and tech companies greater access to our personal data, and pushed us to accept surveillance apps. Societies are going cashless, which means that soon, they will have control over our finances, too. We are sure that if you look deeper into this, you will see how much of our lives they can now control.

COVID-19 has also become a profitable money-making scheme. Look at how much money is going into the purchase of COVID vaccines, while other diseases remain ignored. Look at how many countries have incurred huge debts so they can fund lockdowns and vaccine purchases. Very little of these loaned funds will be used for rebuilding countries. Big Pharma and Big Tech companies have been raking in huge profits in the past few months, but small to medium businesses are suffering. People have lost their jobs. Many have fallen to extreme poverty.

And if Alexander Lukashenko was truthful when he said that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was demanding for lockdowns as a condition for foreign loans (and the IMF is known for making such unjust demands), then allowing our countries to go down this path will have a tremendous impact for our future [see Belarus president reveals IMF/World Bank loans come with conditions for COVID-19 lockdowns]. It isn’t just citizens who have lost their freedoms, nations have also lost their sovereignty. Our governments are no longer our own. And if we don’t act soon, our governments will become our oppressors. 

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