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Sweden to drop all remaining COVID restrictions: ‘It’s time to open up’
Starting Wednesday, there will no longer be any limitations on how many people can gather at restaurants, sports stadiums, and other venues, according to Swedish minister of health and social affairs Lena Hallengren.
Pierre Boralevi, LifeSite News, Feb. 4, 2022
(https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/sweden-to-drop-all-remaining-covid-restrictions-its-time-to-open-up/?utm_source=top_news&utm_campaign=usa)<
STOCKHOLM (LifeSiteNews) — The Swedish government announced Thursday that it will be lifting all COVID restrictions by February 9.
“It’s time to open up Sweden,” said Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson at a press conference.
Starting Wednesday, there will no longer be any limitations on how many people can gather at restaurants, sports stadiums, and other venues, according to Swedish minister of health and social affairs Lena Hallengren.
In addition, Swedes will no longer be required to work from home, and travel restrictions between Sweden and other Nordic countries will be relaxed. Vaccine passport requirements, mask mandates on public transports, and social distancing will also be scrapped.
Throughout 2020 and 2021, Sweden has been the source of heated debate for its management of COVID-19. It was one of very few countries which decided against going into lockdown. The government did not shut down schools or the economy, and did not remotely restrict individual freedoms to the degree seen in the United States and much of Europe.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, the Nordic country of some 10.3 million people has logged a total of more than 2.2 million confirmed cases of COVID, and 16,000 deaths.
The current situation in hospitals has been described as manageable by the Swedish government and has been cited as a reason for lifting the restrictions, in addition to the country’s high rate of vaccination at 73%.
In announcing the lifting of its COVID restrictions, Sweden is now aligning itself with Denmark, which ended them on Tuesday, declaring that COVID was “no longer a dangerous disease” for society.
Two other neighboring Nordic countries, Norway and Finland, have also announced the lifting of some of their COVID restrictions recently, as have a number of countries throughout Europe, including Ireland, Switzerland, France, and the U.K.
While the relaxing or lifting of COVID restrictions in many places will come as good news for the millions of people throughout the world who have been protesting en masse against restrictions to their freedoms, leaders have suggested that the measures might come back in the future, or not be lifted at all, depending on the evolution of the pandemic and the appearance of potential new variants.
In France, health minister Olivier Véran said the vaccine passport currently in place will only be scrapped if there is “no new variant circulating” at the time.
In Sweden, Prime Minister Magdalena Anderson has said that “the pandemic is not over but has entered a totally new phase.”
Moreover, in virtually every country where restrictions are being relaxed or lifted, the decision is not only attributed to the herd immunity generated by the fast-spreading and mild omicron variant, but above all to the alleged efficacy of the COVID-19 “vaccines” and booster shots.
Despite the current relaxing of measures, leaders everywhere are still encouraging, if not legally obliging, people to get vaccinated with the mRNA gene therapy which has been associated with thousands of deaths and millions of adverse events worldwide.
Unvaccinated people are also still being blamed for the fact that the pandemic is still ongoing, despite evidence showing that vaccinated people now account for a majority of cases and hospitalizations in many places.
From Jan. 2022 (I’m only seeing it now)
Ireland Rips Up Vaccine Passport After Half-a-Year of Restrictions on the Unvaxxed
Peter Caddle, Breitbart News, 22 Jan 2022
(https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/01/22/ireland-rips-up-vaccine-passport-after-half-a-year-of-restrictions-on-the-unvaxxed/)
Ireland has torn up its regime of vaccine passes after six months, putting an end to discrimination against the unvaccinated within the country.
After around six months of the system’s operation, Ireland will once again allow the unjabbed to access services such as indoor dining in restaurants and bars.
The passes were first introduced in the country in June of last year, blocking unvaccinated individuals who had not recently recovered from the Chinese Coronavirus from the likes of restaurants and cinemas, as well as from visiting nursing homes.
According to a report by the Irish Independent, the passes have now been scrapped for all domestic venues and activities, with the nation’s Taoiseach (Prime Minister), Micheál Martin, saying that the measures are no longer required.
“I think we’re into a new phase of the pandemic, which is the phase that the type of restrictions that we’ve imposed in the previous phases is no longer required,” the publication reported Martin as saying.
“Spring is coming and I don’t know if I’ve ever looked forward to one as much as I’m looking forward to this one,” the prime minister also noted.
Many in the country have been celebrating the news, with an image of a ripped up EU COVID cert posted by the director of the Iona Institute, David Quinn, receiving over a thousand likes on social media.
However, a number of politicians have since cautioned the public regarding the scrapping of measures, with Prime Minister Martin warning that there may be “further twists” in the pandemic.
This cautious sentiment was echoed by the nation’s Tánaiste (Deputy Prime Minister), Leo Varadkar.
“Immunity will wane – it always does. There will be more variants of concern and there will be another winter so you could envisage a scenario whereby we have a sixth, seventh, eight, ninth, tenth wave,” Varadkar said.
“I don’t know, we just can’t say at the moment how mild or severe that might be,” the deputy PM continued. “What we’re going to do over the next couple of weeks as a government is plan for that.”
Ireland’s abolition of its internal vaccine pass regime comes shortly after England announced last Wednesday that it would be substantially relaxing its COVID rules.
The nation has scrapped all mandatory mask-wearing, as well as the work from home order that had been implemented late last year.
“Having looked at the data carefully, the cabinet concluded that once regulations lapse the government will no longer mandate the wearing of face masks anywhere,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson said regarding restrictions.
“… As covid becomes endemic, we will need to replace legal requirements with advice and guidance urging people with the virus to be careful and considerate of others,” he continued.
While Britain and Ireland have begun loosening their COVID measures, other nations in Europe however are only looking at further tightening restrictions.
Both France and Italy have committed to further measures revolving around their COVID passes, with France in particular set to roll out its new vaccine pass regime by January 24.
Like Ireland’s regime before it, under the new French rules, unjabbed and unrecovered individuals will soon not be able to bypass vaccine requirements with a negative COVID test, banning them from a wide variety of amenities in the country entirely as a result.
Germany meanwhile is threatening to implement mandatory vaccination for the entirety of its adult population, a measure that its neighbour, Austria, has already committed to, passing legislation forcing the jab earlier in the week.
Those who remain unvaccinated in the country are now facing the possibility of hefty fines of up to €3,000.
Another one from Breitbart. Strong bias. But the subject matter is important. I ask you to use discernment.
Chinese Security Thug Drags Dutch Reporter Away During Live Shot at Genocide GamesScreengrab/Twitter
Warner Todd Huston, Breitbart, Feb. 4, 2022
(https://www.breitbart.com/sports/2022/02/04/watch-chinese-security-thug-drags-dutch-reporter-away-during-live-shot-genocide-games/)
A reporter for a Dutch news outlet was dragged away on video by a Chinese security officer outside the arena during a live broadcast of the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony on Friday.
The reporter, Sjoerd den Daas, of NOS Nieuws (Nederlandse Omroep Stichting, a member of the Netherlands Public Broadcasting system) is seen in the clip being shoved and herded away from his camera by a Chinese security agent in a black jacket and red armband.
It is still unknown exactly what rule the reporter broke, and he was not detained, but the outrageous clip is evidence that the Red Chinese will brook no freedom of the press during the genocide games.
WATCH:
In its Tweet of the video clip, NOS wrote: “Our correspondent [den Daas] was pulled away from the camera by security guards at 12:00 pm live in the NOS Journal. Unfortunately, this is increasingly becoming a daily reality for journalists in China. He is fine and was able to finish his story a few minutes later.”
By some reports, the Chinese security guard is heard saying in Mandarin, “hurry up, step quickly,” as the Dutch reporter says, “I’m allowed to be here.”
NOS editor-in-chief Marcel Gelauff said the incident was “a painful illustration” of how the foreign press is treated in Red China. “Sjoerd has often told and shown that it is difficult as a journalist in China. There is a far-reaching tendency to curtail freedoms, and this may be even stronger because of corona,” Gelauff added, according to Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad, via Yahoo News.
The treatment that Sjoerd den Daas faced is nothing new in China. The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China recently decried the increasing harassment of journalists in the communist nation. In a report released in January, the organization revealed that foreign reporters are constantly slapped with nuisance lawsuits by Chinese officials.
They are also hounded off streets during video reporting, face having their visas revoked, and are constantly ejected from the country. They also face attacks via tech, as well. They are routinely harassed by name on social media in China, and elsewhere, they have their accounts and their devices hacked, and they even face physical assault.