We have had outbreaks of disease before. In all cases the number of infected has increased exponentially for some time. In all cases, this number has leveled off as fewer new cases have occurred. Eventually there comes a point where no new infections occur. This all occurs without any extreme lockdowns like the one we’ve done now.
Question: how do we know that the current decline in case growth is due to the lockdown and isn’t just the natural course of the outbreak? Sweden is experiencing a similar slowdown without any lockdown. Perhaps an advisory to practice social distancing and good hygiene without closing everything might have done just as well, or at least nearly so?
Sweden has the lowest population density in Europe. They are already socially distanced.
Sweden is considering emergency powers to enable a lockdown if their PM decides one is necessary.
We’ve had outbreaks of disease before but not since the Spanish flu in 1918 has one had the potential to be this deadly. Most of the scares in the past couple of decades were managed before they ever reached the U.S. Ebola, SARS, MERS. H1N1 infected a lot of people but wasn’t as deadly as the normal seasonal flu.