A picture of Freedom.
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 ...
A picture of Freedom.
Safely? WTF! The question should be, “How to get there with minimum deaths and damage to the economy?”
What do you expect from the elitist Foreign Affairs?
you are just wise.....agree with all your sentiments, and I too, am in that vulnerable group....
Except it was a nice political/social win for Sweden. Most Swedes strongly support what b their government did.
The Democrats would feature focus groups of surviving family members on TV until the election.
Since most of the deaths are in deep blue states like NY/NJ and red states like South Dakota only had 9 deaths total as at last week, I'd say bring it on.
perhaps we can just start giving vulnerable people the HCQ trifecta before they’re even sick prophalactically.....It couldn’t hurt....
This was obvious $5 trillion ago.
Hydroxycloroquine WITH ZINC, that’s how. It’s cheap and effective.
And before we have to take HCQ, if our liberal “betters” allow it, we can take steps to boosting our natural immunity. Wr can take Vitamin C, zinc, quercitin, vitamin D3. And apparently elderberry and melatonin help. I don’t take the melatonin, personally.
Sweden’s economy is suffering because of a massive drop in tourism and because people are doing on their own what other governments are forcing their citizens to do. Visits to restaurants, stores, sporting events, etc. are way down because of voluntary social distancing.
Now if that’s happening in a country with no real restrictions imagine what is going to happen to countries like Spain, France and the UK, which not only have far tighter controls than Sweden, they also have a higher death rate so they get the worst of both worlds.
Where are we headed?
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NyvVfQNfXtZDP0ZgVYw6Mw5X_B6pdK-gXFyd9g1zJgA/mobilebasic
What you wrote is heartfelt and true. We can’t stop the virus.
Sweden should not be a model for this nor for a few other things in my opinion.
Islamic Invasion?
Socialized Medicine?
So, let’s follow them on this one...
The “stay at home” pitch was all about “flattening the curve”, not reducing the total number of deaths, but of not overwhelming the hospitals.
The notion that this can be contained is absurd.
And even in deep blue Commiefornia, I’m here to tell you, people are DONE with the stay at home. Tonight at Venice beach, hundreds of people were mingling on the Venice pier, marveling at the bio-luminescent surf.
We might actually be close to civil unrest if the ‘Rat governors don’t back down.
Well...one way to NOT get there is to tell people to board themselves up in their homes.
Oh, great, another model, this time on the rosy side.
Everything I’ve ever read has said 2/3 are required for herd immunity, now the rosy-scenario modelers are saying much less.
Spanish Flu killed 50-100 million worldwide. Only a max of 20% of the global population were estimated to have been infected.
Spanish Flu faded and disappeared by the early 1920s with no vaccine, and no herd immunity.
Social distance sufficiently well for a long enough time, and a pandemic will fade on its own.
Herd immunity means we can live normally, with no social distancing, and the virus will not find enough viable new hosts to infect.
But you can accomplish the same with social distancing alone, without sacrificing millions on the altar of herd immunity.
We beat a worse pandemic, Spanish Flu, a century ago without a vaccine, and without achieving herd immunity. See my reply above.
Folks who truly believe in herd immunity should arrange Corona parties and deliberately infect themselves. Sure, a % will die horribly, and a % will suffer permanent lung and kidney damage, but that will be a small price to pay for achieving the holy grail of herd immunity!
Go for it, herd immunity boosters! Arrange and attend Corona parties! Shut up and do it!
(We beat Spanish Flu without a vaccine and without herd immunity.)
Disagree.
You need to know how many people who were infected while observing stay at home orders a);live in high rise housing and 2);took public transportation to obtain essentials.
Who says we can’t stop it? We beat Spanish Flu without a vaccine and without herd immunity.
2/3 of the world’s population did NOT get infected with Spanish Flu, survive, and gain immunity.
Do a little research, the information is a click away.
“The 1918-19 Spanish Influenza Pandemic and Vaccine Development”
September 26, 2018
https://www.historyofvaccines.org/content/blog/vaccine-development-spanish-flu
“First, the numbers. In 1918 the US population was 103.2 million. During the three waves of the Spanish Influenza pandemic between spring 1918 and spring 1919, about 200 of every 1000 people contracted influenza (about 20.6 million). Between 0.8% (164,800) and 3.1% (638,000) of those infected died from influenza or pneumonia secondary to it.”
So, with no vaccine, and no herd immunity, Spanish Flu faded out.
It can and will be contained the same way the Spanish Flu was, without herd immunity, and without an economy-crushing lockdown. See my reply above.
Add to your list the virtual euthanasia of the elderly (over 65) who contract Covid? Instead of a trip to the hospital and oxygen, they are given morphine.
"See you in Valhalla, granny!" is the Swedish model.
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