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Sweden developed herd immunity after refusing to lock down, some health experts now claim, while others point to its high fatality rate
MarketWatch ^ | August 25, 2020 | Rupert Steiner

Posted on 08/25/2020 7:00:29 AM PDT by karpov

Leading Swedish health experts claim the country has a falling coronavirus infection rate because it was one of the few that didn’t go into lockdown and has rejected the need for masks, while critics point to the country’s relatively high rate of death per 100,000 population.

Arne Elofsson, a professor in biometrics at Stockholm University, thinks the population has developed a form of immunity: “Strict rules do not work as people seem to break them. Sweden is doing fine.”

Anders Tegnell, an epidemiologist involved in managing Sweden’s pandemic response (the Financial Times called him its architect), thinks masks give a false sense of security: “The belief that masks can solve our problem is very dangerous.”

Prime Minister Stefan Löfven thinks voluntary social-distancing rules and not closing schools but banning gatherings of more than 50 people has been the right approach: “Now there are quite a few people who think we were right,” he told a newspaper. “The strategy that we adopted, I believe is right — to protect individuals, limit the spread of the infection.”

Data from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control show Sweden has a fortnightly infection rate of 37 cases per 100,000 people. This is much lower than France, with 60 cases per 100,000 and Spain at 152.7 cases per 100,000.

However, Sweden has an overall COVID-related death rate of 57.08 per 100,000, which is the ninth highest in the world, according to Johns Hopkins University.

What’s more, Sweden, which has a population of just over 10 million, has had a fatality rate of 6.8%; that’s lower than those of Belgium, the U.K., Italy and Spain, but higher than the fatality rates of Brazil, the U.S., Mexico, France and Ireland.

(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: covid; herdimmunity; sweden
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1 posted on 08/25/2020 7:00:29 AM PDT by karpov
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To: karpov

Sweden did not protect it’s elderly population.


2 posted on 08/25/2020 7:03:29 AM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of Colorado scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: MtnClimber

So?


3 posted on 08/25/2020 7:04:24 AM PDT by Pikachu_Dad ("the media are selling you a line of soap)
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To: MtnClimber

If you’re old, stay home.


4 posted on 08/25/2020 7:04:38 AM PDT by Sirius Lee (They are openly stating that they intend to murder us. Prep if you want to live.)
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To: karpov

Exactly. Even those unskippable ads before every youtube video that The CDC puts out admits the best we can do is “slow” the spread, not stop it.


5 posted on 08/25/2020 7:05:58 AM PDT by Texas Eagle (If it wasn't for double-standards, Liberals would have no standards at all -- Texas Eagle)
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To: karpov

RE: while others point to its high fatality rate

How high compared to EU countries with stringent lockdown policies?


6 posted on 08/25/2020 7:06:13 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: karpov
There are two big categories of things that drive me crazy lately --

Arbitrary rules:
Masks are bad / Masks are mandatory
A vaccine is not possible / We must have a vaccine
You must quarantine after travel / quarantining after travel is not needed

And Experts who can't interpret data in the same way:
Sweden is a great success / Sweden is a failure

Do we know anything at all?

7 posted on 08/25/2020 7:06:27 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy (If White Privilege is real, why did Elizabeth Warren lie about being an Indian?)
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To: Pikachu_Dad

The reason for the relatively high death rate. If they had stayed open, but put in protection for long term care facilities they would have low fatality rates AND avoided destroying their economy.


8 posted on 08/25/2020 7:07:33 AM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of Colorado scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: MtnClimber

So? It’s called taking responsibility for one’s self. Where did you get the demented idea that all of us “seniors” wanted the government to protect us?


9 posted on 08/25/2020 7:08:47 AM PDT by RJS1950 (The democrats are the "enemies foreign and domestic" cited in the federal oath)
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To: karpov

The virus is pretty deadly for people who are really old, really fat, or already have a bad disease (many of which are a consequence of being really fat). For younger people who are otherwise fairly healthy, it’s the flu.


10 posted on 08/25/2020 7:09:57 AM PDT by cdcdawg (Biden has dementia.)
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To: ClearCase_guy

Do we know anything at all?

Yes. Depending on what expert you choose, you can say most anyhting


11 posted on 08/25/2020 7:12:40 AM PDT by RonnG (')
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To: MtnClimber

Yup - the death rates have nothing to do with shutdown or not. Same as NY. Early they missed protections for elderly care.


12 posted on 08/25/2020 7:13:09 AM PDT by rb22982
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To: RJS1950

I was not referring to all older citizens, many can make their own decisions quite well. I was referring to long term care facilities where the residents have no control over protective measures.


13 posted on 08/25/2020 7:14:06 AM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of Colorado scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: karpov

Too much karaoke?


14 posted on 08/25/2020 7:53:28 AM PDT by Jeremiah2911
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To: All

Higher fatality, based on numbers?

Less testing, higher death rates. More testing, lower death rates.

For mathematics to work, you need to know how many died _and_ how many got the virus.


15 posted on 08/25/2020 7:55:17 AM PDT by veracious (UN=OIC=Islam; USgov may be radically changed, just amend USConstitution)
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To: MtnClimber

They themselves had admitted that failure. It’s the reason their death numbers are so high. Had they done a better job of protecting the elderly in care facilities, their numbers would look far better, despite no lockdowns.


16 posted on 08/25/2020 8:07:56 AM PDT by 2aProtectsTheRest (The media is banging the fear drum enough. Don't help them do it.)
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To: karpov

Sweden is doing just fine, but they are nowhere near herd immunity. Just around 9% of their population has been infected and they’re seeing new cases and deaths. Again, I think their overall approach is fine, but the idea that they’ve reached herd immunity is a fantasy clearly dispelled by observable evidence.


17 posted on 08/25/2020 8:12:36 AM PDT by 2aProtectsTheRest (The media is banging the fear drum enough. Don't help them do it.)
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To: karpov

What a pathetic attempt at writing. Does the writer understand that on any list ranked high from low that some countries will be high and others will be low? Rankings mean nothing.

Th writer discuses fatality rates, covid death rates, and case death rates. the n ays Sweden is high er then some and lower than others.

What the writer doesn’t grasp is that the fatality count for Sweden is higher because Sweden is almost done with Corona whereas the flatten the curve countries are still building their fatality counts and will continue to build them SLOWLY.


18 posted on 08/25/2020 8:39:28 AM PDT by FreedomNotSafety
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To: karpov

“Sweden developed herd immunity after refusing to lock down, some health experts now claim, while others point to its high fatality rate”

Was their percentage of folks dying higher than that of our folks in Nursing Homes?


19 posted on 08/25/2020 8:41:05 AM PDT by antidemoncrat (Biden's)
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To: karpov

An important point is that their death rate is in the same ball park with the rest of Europe, but they did essentially nothing. Countries that destroyed themselves did not do any better.

Netherlands is about equal to the US, but again, they did not destroy their economy or turn their society inside out.


20 posted on 08/25/2020 10:05:49 AM PDT by marron
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