I thought you'd never ask ...
Posted on 05/18/2020 9:38:01 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Both Sweden and the UK stirred controversy with their respective governments choosing to follow the herd immunity plan rather than strict lockdown measures introduced in other European countries like Italy, France and Spain to tackle the coronavirus.
And while the UK was quick to scrap the idea, Sweden continued with the herd immunity plan, with Johan Giesecke, the nation’s former chief epidemiologist and internationally recognised expert who advises the World Health Organization, describing the strategy as the “best in the world”.
However it hasn’t been a free-for-all. The Swedish government did implement some restrictions, such as a ban on gatherings of over 50 people and social-distancing rules in gyms, restaurants and bars, which like nurseries and schools for children under 16, have remained open. The majority of the Swedish population, who were asked to practice social distancing on a mostly voluntary basis, approve of the approach, with polls indicating that two-thirds believe the government has done a good job.
However with 3,679 deaths and a mortality rate three times higher than that of Denmark and seven times higher than in Finland, many believe that Sweden’s strategy is far from the best in the world. But it must be noted that Sweden’s mortality rate has been much lower than that in Britain, France and Spain, all of which have enforced strict lockdown measures that will have lasting economic impacts.
Coronavirus lockdown measures “pushing deaths into the future”, says Dr. Giesecke.
According to Dr. Giesecke, lockdowns are solely a means of delaying the inevitable. “You’re pushing your cases and deaths into the future, they are not disappearing,” he said speaking to New Zealand media at the weekend.
Although health authority leaders in the likes of Spain and Italy would argue that the lockdown measures were necessary to slow the spread and stop the collapse of their respective health systems.
While populations in other European countries begin to move about again as lockdown restrictions are eased, which will likely lead to a rise in covid-19 cases and deaths once again, Stockholm will reach herd immunity (the 40-60% rate of infection needed to prevent spread of the coronavirus), by June, according to Dr. Giesecke. The assumption is that when countries count the death toll a year from now, their figures will be similar, regardless of the measures taken, although the economic damage in Sweden will be far less.
Criticism for Sweden’s coronavirus plan
However Dr. Giesecke’s counterparts at Johns Hopkins University have called herd immunity a "dangerous misconception", while the World Health Organization also re-iterated its objections to herd immunity last week.
"This idea that, 'Well, maybe countries who had lax measures and haven't done anything will all of a sudden magically reach some herd immunity, and so what if we lose a few old people along the way?' This is a really dangerous, dangerous calculation," Mike Ryan, WHO's executive director of health emergencies, said.
"I think we need to be really careful when we use terms in this way around natural infections in humans because it can lead to a very brutal arithmetic which does not put people and life and suffering at the center of that equation.”
While the general consensus among international health experts is that herd immunity is a reckless and dangerous policy to follow, many citizens in the U.K, U.S. and other countries, whose lives, jobs and businesses have been ravaged by lockdown measures, will be demanding their governments to look towards Sweden. But only time will tell whether Sweden’s strategy was better than other countries.
Health care system within capacity? Check.
No exponential explosion of hospitalizations or deaths? Check.
Disproportionately koranimals and rapefugees entering hell? GOOD!
I don’t see a problem here. Sweden’s doing it right.
Easy for WHO to say. They have no skin in the game. They are not actually responsible for anything.
We won’t know for sure if Sweden’s plan was a success for another few years, once the multiple waves have washed through locked-down and unlocked-down countries.
And then there is also the economic impact postmortem.
All in all, Sweden has been a great control group. We should be grateful.
Just close EVERYTHING forever.
They do have skin in the game.
Political skin. They need to serve their Chinese masters.
Agreed.
We’d be far better off about $20 trillion total expense richer, without a hundred-million-plus in the developing world likely to die out of our self-imposed Depression and with Trump on a more likely path to reelection.
Should have gone way further protecting the old from the start. E.g., why were the governors’ directives in NY, NJ, MI and CA allowed to stand for 6 weeks to guarantee that the Covid infected were sent into nursing homes across their states? Why didn’t the Trump admin develop its own models that would account for the domestic and global cost in lives from this one-terming shutdown?
Why are we on track now to let Bill Gates inject the world with his devious and dangerous first-ever RNA vaccine?
RE: Just close EVERYTHING forever.
And does that guarantee no deaths or infections? In NYC 66% of infections were on people who were sheltering in place.
SEE HERE:
REVEALED: 66% of New York state coronavirus hospitalizations are people staying at HOME and NOT essential workers - which begs question: Does lockdown even work?
WHO don’t like it?
Who is WHO?
LOL
The are kind of like our Department of Education- they do nothing but suck up money.
Exactly. The WHO has never actually treated a patient and the Dept. of Education has never actually taught a child.
WHO to Sweden - you are risking all of our credibility in making massively dire predictions which created a massive police state we intend on utilizing in the future...
True isolation doesn’t work. You get at least some of your food from outdoors and outside your house.
You missed the /s.
Which country is getting more bad press about their handling of Coronavirus: Sweden, or China?
One way or another, the world is going to be thankful that Sweden acted like the control in this massive pandemic response experiment even if they did impose some measures and shut some things down, no other country even tried to see if shutting down schools and restaurants was necessary, or made a difference in the spread of the disease or mortality rates. They may not admit it, but they’ll be thankful.
“True isolation doesn’t work. You get at least some of your food from outdoors and outside your house.”
That is correct there is true isolation unless you have 5 years worth of food store up in your home.
I do not live there but read Sweden did have restrictions and social distancing in place.
“The majority of the Swedish population, who were asked to practice social distancing on a mostly voluntary basis, approve of the approach, with polls indicating that two-thirds believe the government has done a good job” A lot of folks avoided crowded places.
Sweden is a different country then the USA:
Sweden population is smaller then other countries. The largest city in Sweden is 1.5 million compare to New York City 8.1 million.
Sweden is a less dense Density 25 P/Km² compare to the USA 36 Density P/Km².
The virus likes highly populated areas like New York City. I think the real lesson is why do we need to lock down our less populated areas (fly over area) with the same strict rules as big cites like New York. Those areas can still function with basic restrictions and social distancing in place.
In order to get herd immunity we need to let the uneducated get infected by not forcing them into lock down we are only delaying things. (example the jails in CA prisoners getting infected on purpose) We need to let Darwin theories work to get a better country.
“66% of New York state coronavirus hospitalizations are people staying at HOME and NOT essential workers - which begs question: Does lockdown even work?”
I have to wonder if that 65% came from New York City public housing. Very dirty third world looking area.
” infected by going out to get groceries or other essential items, or from seeing people outside of work. “
Where they using public transport (buses and subways) to travel back and forth?
In the fly over country you drive your own car back and forth to the stores and live in cleaner houses with yards.
Just found the break down chart at the bottom UK article. Very interesting..
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