Sweden's Coronavirus death toll is now approaching zero, but experts are warning others not to hail its no lockdown strategy as a success

Business Insider ^ | 07/09/2020 | Sinead Baker

[SeekAndFind]

By all accounts, Sweden's high rate of coronavirus deaths was evidence that the country had made a horrendous error. Sweden — which did not impose a strict lockdown — suffered 543 deaths per million of its population, compared to just 105 in neighboring Denmark. The Swedish death toll has been roughly 11 times worse than Norway's, on a per capita basis.

Yet coronavirus deaths in Sweden have fallen dramatically in recent days, and are now approaching zero. Between June 30 and July 6, Sweden recorded fewer than five deaths per day on all days but one.

The decline in newly diagnosed cases has been even more dramatic. In late June, Sweden diagnosed more than 1,800 people per day as COVID-19 positive. Today, just two weeks later, only one-sixth of that number are testing positive on a daily basis.

On paper, Sweden suddenly looks like a stunning — albeit late-running — success. But experts are warning that their recent spell of good news does not mean the country's no-lockdown plan was successful, or that other countries should follow its path.

Jon Tallinger, a doctor who left his job in Sweden to campaign for better treatment of the elderly during the pandemic, said people shouldn't be amazed by charts showing Sweden's progress because they look remarkably similar to those of countries that have been hard-hit by the with coronavirus, including Peru, Pakistan, and Haiti.

He said any decline in deaths now is not a win for Sweden's strategy: "They said that Sweden's response was effective when its deaths were rising, now they are saying it is effective as deaths are going down."

"The deaths rates have fallen but it doesn't change the fact that our strategy has failed. And we don't know when the rates will rise again."

[SeekAndFind]

Sweden did not implement a full-scale lockdown. Instead, it allowed people to live relatively normal lives. It banned gatherings with more than 50 people, imposed limits on customers in restaurants, urged people to social distance, and banned elderly care home visitors. The hope, state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell said, was that people might develop a widespread "herd immunity" as this happened.

Experts pointed to a host of reasons for the shifting numbers. They credited myriad factors, including the arrival of summer, with fewer people in offices creating more distance, and Sweden quietly taking steps to protect people in care homes. Johan Carlson, the director-general of Sweden's public health agency, credited the "effect of us keeping up the social distancing" for the decline.

Swedish authorities said the reason the case rate shot up in June is due to increased testing.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Sweden's Coronavirus death toll is now approaching zero, but experts totalitarian control-freaks are warning others not to hail its no lockdown strategy as a success

Fixed it.

[SeekAndFind]

One study showed 6.1% of Sweden's population had developed antibodies by late May.

[central_va]

Luckily the "team" was unharmed.

[afchief]

It is a success!!!!!!!!!!!

ABSOLUTE **FACTS** ON COVID19

http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=239667

[BenLurkin]

That reminds me. It think I’m going to BBQ this weekend.

[Savage Rider]

“Sweden’s Coronavirus death toll is now approaching zero, but experts are warning others not to hail its no lockdown strategy as a success.” Take the damn victory and stop apologizing and hedging. It worked for Sweden. There’s your sign.

[KC_Lion]

Don’t believe your lying eyes!

[Savage Rider]

I received a negative result from a test last month. This warning came with the results: A Not Detected (negative) test result for this test means that SARS-CoV-2 RNA was not present in the specimen above the limit of detection. A negative result does not rule out the possibility of COVID-19 and should not be used as the sole basis for treatment or patient management decisions.”

So, I’m not taking anymore tests where a stick is jammed up my nose, possibly penetrating the brain if it is done poorly, for a result that takes six days to get the results and is, in all honesty, INCONCLUSIVE. President Trump was correct, we need to stop testing non-symptomatic people, as is being encouraged in Texas. We should only test if the symptoms are severe and cannot be treated at home.

[cuban leaf]

I just read the article. It is insulting. It’s why I dumped TV news in 1997. They would give the raw facts and then pontificate as if those were not the facts.

As usual, they don’t talk about what is happening but, as they’ve done since Februrary, try to scare us with what is “going to happen”. Except it doesn’t.

And they ignore that while their death rate per million was higher than neighboring countries, they also kept their culture and economy intact.

[FreedomNotSafety]

Spread Corona fast or spread it slow but there is no viable way of stopping the spread. The goal of crashing the economy and the suspension of liberty was to SLOW the spread. The idea was that a slow spread would save lives by preserving hospital capacity for the Corona afflicted.

The goal was never to stop the spread.

So make the call. How many lives were saved by not overwhelming the hospitals? Remember the same number of people are still gong to get infected. It is a matter of how long that takes.

Eventually the per capita death toll will be comparable for countries that have had the virus sweep through its population.

[Attention Surplus Disorder]

Pay attention to the science, now.

[Bayan]

Success is always a failure to these idiots because they simply will not accept that their opinion was wrong. They are ridiculous and dangerous.

[Sergio]

bkmk

[Cronos]

"And they ignore that while their death rate per million was higher than neighboring countries, they also kept their culture and economy intact"

Denmark, Norway and Finland kept their culture intact during the period as well as Sweden did.

As for economy

Sweden didn’t impose a lockdown, but its economy is just as bad as its neighbors

...pitted Sweden against Denmark, noting they speak near-identical languages and share a broadly similar culture and demographic, yet Denmark imposed one of the most aggressive lockdowns globally.

In both countries, the unemployment rate rose 2 percentage points (though Sweden has one extra month of data) and the consumer confidence numbers plunged in both, he said.

Sweden’s central bank expects its economy to contract by 4.5 percent this year, a revision from a previously expected gain of 1.3 percent. The unemployment rate jumped to 9 percent in May from 7.1 percent in March. “The overall damage to the economy means the recovery will be protracted, with unemployment remaining elevated,” Oxford Economics concluded in a recent research note.

This is more or less how damage caused by the pandemic has played out in Denmark, where the central bank expects that the economy will shrink 4.1 percent this year, and where joblessness has edged up to 5.6 percent in May from 4.1 percent in March.

In short, Sweden suffered a vastly higher death rate while failing to collect on the expected economic gains.

Sweden can be easily compared to Denmark+Norway(minus Greenland) -- similar in area, population (to the two combined) and density (to the two combined minus Greenland).

Yet Sweden has multiples more deaths per million and its economy was as badly hit

I think it is good that the Swedish government tried this - as it is a perfect experiment to compare the effectiveness of a lockdown or its uneffectiveness. So far it looks like the lockdown made sense. I would hold off until 2022 when the epidemic is weakened to make a final call

[cuban leaf]

People were still allowed to live their lives.

That has value.

People were allowed to keep their businesses open.

That has value.

We are allowed to drive cars in the US, even though it kills tens of thousands per year.

That has value.

We are allowed to own guns in the US, even though thousands are killed every year in gun violence.

That has value.

Life is risk. A life lived in fear is a life half lived.

[Cronos]

“People were still allowed to live their lives.” — err.. people in Sweden spent most of the time indoors isolated. That was no different than in Denmark or Norway.

“People were allowed to keep their business open” — yes, that’s true, and many shut as they had far fewer customers as people stayed at home

The net result was that Sweden today has 4 times the deaths and the same economic downturn as Norway-Denmark (excl. Greenland)

[cuban leaf]

So, it doesn’t matter what you do.

The four times as many deaths stat doesn’t wash with me because the number is still low and we don’t really know what killed all those people. Was it the virus, something else, ventilators, etc. Where I live, nobody even knows a person with symptoms, much less died of this.

And that includes my family in Kentucky, South Dakota (who didn’t lock down), Seattle and Phenix.

And yes, I’m appearing to move the goal posts, but it is actually what fueled my first response. And it looks like Sweden at least got to the herd immunity point faster than the others.

Here is another core, background belief I have. I rarely get sick and even treated my wife at home for four weeks while she had the flu two years ago and almost died - but I showed no symptoms.

And that may be because I rarely wash my hands and am an avid nail biter. I have the immune system of a turkey buzzard. :)

I personally think locking down makes it worse in the long run. The only reason for locking down was to flatten the curve. Well, mission accomplished. And it was flat enough in Sweden.

Now, let’s get back to living our lives.

[Sirius Lee]

The virus has already burned through Sweden and, with their immune systems properly exercised over the healthy warmer months, they will weather any possible resurgence in December much better than countries where people didn’t mix it up and are now compromised with little immunity, not just from wuflu, but from regular covid, the flu, bronchitis, strep...

[Cronos]

The virus hasn’t “burned through” Sweden - as another post here said, it’s about 6.5% of the population who have already got the virus. Let’s say he’s off by 200% and its really just about 20% who have got the virus.

That, crowd immunity, didn’t happen yet.

About the warmer months, it is doubtful as even warmer countries like Brazil and India are having large numbers of deaths.