Posted on 05/12/2020 9:09:35 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
China placed 50 million people under quarantine in Wuhan Province in January. Since then, many liberal democracies have taken aggressive authoritarian measures of their own to fight the novel coronavirus. By mid-March, almost all Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries had implemented some combination of school, university, workplace, and public transportation closures; restrictions on public events; and limits on domestic and international travel. One country, however, stands out as an exception in the West.
Rather than declare a lockdown or a state of emergency, Sweden asked its citizens to practice social distancing on a mostly voluntary basis. Swedish authorities imposed some restrictions designed to flatten the curve: no public gatherings of more than 50 people, no bar service, distance learning in high schools and universities, and so on. But they eschewed harsh controls, fines, and policing.
Swedes have changed their behavior, but not as profoundly as the citizens of other Western democracies. Many restaurants remain open, although they are lightly trafficked; young children are still in school. And in contrast to neighboring Norway (and some Asian countries), Sweden has not introduced location-tracing technologies or apps, thus avoiding threats to privacy and personal autonomy.
Swedish authorities have not officially declared a goal of reaching herd immunity, which most scientists believe is achieved when more than 60 percent of the population has had the virus. But augmenting immunity is no doubt part of the government’s broader strategy—or at least a likely consequence of keeping schools, restaurants, and most businesses open.
Anders Tegnell, the chief epidemiologist at Sweden’s Public Health Agency, has projected that the city of Stockholm could reach herd immunity as early as this month. Based on updated behavioral assumptions (social-distancing norms are changing how Swedes behave),
(Excerpt) Read more at foreignaffairs.com ...
The Author gives the following reasons why Sweden’s Strategy will eventually be adopted by the rest of the world:
* Swedish authorities have argued that the country’s higher death rate will appear comparatively lower in hindsight. Efforts to contain the virus are doomed to fail in many countries, and a large percentage of people will be infected in the end. When much of the world experiences a deadly second or more waves, Sweden will have the worst of the pandemic behind it.
* Lockdowns are simply not sustainable for the amount of time that it will likely take to develop a vaccine. Letting up will reduce economic, social, and political pressures. It may also allow populations to build an immunity that will end up being the least bad way of fighting COVID-19 in the long run.
#2 is important. Just last week NY reported that recently the vast majority of Wuhan Virus positive people in the state are people who have reported they were strictly following the “Safer at Home” guidelines.
How is this possible? Because those people were likely isolating themselves as much as possible but, they still had to leave their residences to shop for life essentials. And, while they were out they were exposed.
All the “Safer at Home” is doing is delaying the inevitable. It will not save lives. Eventually, you have to venture out and live your life. Almost all of us do and when we do we will be exposed. Most will survive. Some will succumb. Such is life.
3.5 million infected, yet no one can name a single person on Earth with immunity to covid 19.
Good God. There IS no way to “get there safely”. People are going to die. I could be one of them.
But my single life is not worth mortgaging the future of this country, which is what we are doing, and it is the damned stupidest thing this country has ever done.
At some point in my life, something changed in this country, where everyone is supposed to live a life free of risk, danger, injury, hurt feelings, and death. I don’t know exactly when that happened.
There is an old saying that a ship in a harbor is a safe ship, but that is not what ships are for.
Likewise, humans huddling in their houses in abject fear are safe humans, but that is not what humans are made for.
We better get that through our thick skulls.
People are going to die.
If we don’t die of the virus, we are going to die from malnutrition if we are lucky, or starvation if we aren’t. We will fall prey to crime, suicide, decreased life expectancies, ruined lives, and poverty.
This crap makes me angry. When did we become such a country of pussies?
Among other things, this doesn’t take into account mutations.
From what my dad tells me it began in the 1960’s and has devolved from then on. BTW, my dad is a Korean War and Vietnam War Vet with two Purple Hearts. One in each war.
He died recently and told me the proudest vote he ever cast was for Donald Trump.
See the lovely lakes, the wonderful telephone system, and many interesting and furry animals, including the majestic møøse.
What’s worse than a horrible death?
A horrible life. If I only have 10 days left, then let them be 10 good days, rather than 10,000 of the exact same day over and over and over and over and
It was clear more than a momth ago that this was the best approach. The Swedes rightly calculated that delaying the inevitable was not worth the cost.
I started posting this in late February....and now there is “scientific data” to back this up;
1) MOST of us have been exposed.
2) MANY of us have been “infected”
3) SOME of us have been “symptomatic”
and, unfortunately
4) SOME of the infected and symptomatic will be really sick and die.
And now the data shows that category 4 are mostly very elderly with multiple co-morbidities aka “underlying conditions”.
This has NEVER been about YOUR health.
This has NEVER been about “protecting the most vulnerable”
Call me a FLUbro...that would be a badge of honor.
I stand with Patrick Henry:
GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME DEATH!
I think Sweden has some lessons to offer. But a balanced analysis is necessary.
That this is published in Foreign Affairs means that the lockdown enthusiasts have lost the backing of the big global money. It lets Mario Cuomo know that it’s OK to unlock.
When my generation (I was born in ‘87, so the end of Reagan’s term) reached voting age. I’m a Libertarian, but I tend to vote Republican in attempts to counter the hypermajority of Democrats here in IL.
My generation was a mixture of latch key kids and helicopter parents, on top of rapidly degrading anti-American curricula in schools, making most of my generation feel entitled to everything it wanted. Social media made it worse, by creating endless numbers of attention whores who were able to block and allow only messages with which they agreed, creating echo chambers.
Yep. I’m not one of those, but my friends from high school? God. It’s depressing. Even the one with a PhD in History is a commie pinko. How that happened, I have NO clue.
I don’t know about Herd immunity, but I have seen a lot of Herd mentality.
Likewise, humans huddling in their houses in abject fear are safe humans,
Nope. In New York, 66% of new infections came from those in lockdowns. That figure came from Cuomo himself.
We better get that through our thick skulls.
People are going to die.
Oh no!
And here I was thinking I was going to live forever /sarc.
Trump realized that doing what Sweden did is a political failure. The Democrats would feature focus groups of surviving family members on TV until the election.
Now that we softened the blow on the hospitals, it’s time to take the political risk of a second wave by getting back to regular life.
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