Hahaha, he is shameless. Well now, will gnus go as far as to say that if the same policy had been enacted in tbe US at the time it would have been an epic disaster? Or is he still locked in magical thinking where impimentation just happens flawlessly when a far far more unified society could not pull it off? That would be something.
Sweden, Which Refused Lockdown During COVID First Wave, Imposes Restrictions as Cases Soar By Soo Kim On 10/19/20 at 9:39 AM EDT As coronavirus cases rise in Sweden, where a nationwide lockdown was never imposed, the country's public health agency is working with regional authorities who will now be able to enforce new restrictions from Monday. The latest move follows the country's sixth consecutive rise in weekly new cases since the week commencing August 31, after flattening out for months, according to data compiled by the World Health Organization (WHO). Last week, Sweden reported its highest daily case count since June, reporting 970 cases on October 15, according to the WHO. Speaking to Newsweek, Dr. Anders Tegnell, the chief state epidemiologist at Sweden's public health agency who is behind the country's anti-lockdown strategy, said: "It [the latest measures] is not a lockdown but some extra recommendations might be communicated locally when a need from the regional authorities is communicated." When asked what were the main reasons that prompted this shift in the country's COVID-19 strategy, Tegnell told Newsweek: "That on the national level the development is fairly stable but local development might happen and will need local solutions," adding that the new restrictions "will be decided according to the local epidemiology and needs." Johan Nojd, who leads the infectious diseases department in Uppsala, a city near the Swedish capital of Stockholm, is expected to meet with Tegnell on Monday to discuss which measures will be introduced in Uppsala, where cases were reported to have increased tenfold in recent weeks, with 185 cases per 100,000 recovered over the past two weeks, the Telegraph reported. Nojd told the Telegraph: "Perhaps tomorrow we will have several talking about concerts or restaurants and then perhaps one could say, 'in Uppsala now for two or three weeks it is the [Swedish] public health agency's advice not to sit in restaurants late at night'." Local officials will have the authority to direct residents to avoid certain public spaces including shopping centers, museums, libraries, swimming pools, gyms, other sports facilities, sports matches and concerts. Regional authorities will also have the power to tell residents to avoid public transport as well as visiting the elderly and others that fall within risk groups, according to the Telegraph. The new measures, described by Bitte Brastad, the chief legal officer at Sweden's public health agency, as "something in between regulations and recommendations," do not come with fines for any violations. Speaking to Newsweek, Marcus Carlsson, a mathematician and senior lecturer at Lund University who has been closely following the outbreak, said: "The authorities have certainly made a silent shift towards a strategy more in line with the rest of Europe." But Carlsson noted the latest new measures have not been "implemented in reality anywhere in Sweden, and even doctors in hospitals still walk around without masks (leaving vulnerable people too afraid to seek health care). "At least 10 percent of old and vulnerable [people] are still self-isolating, contact tracing is still absent and case reporting is not reliable. But despite these things, it seems they [Sweden's public health agency] are reluctant to repeat the mistakes of spring and secret herd immunity dreams does no longer seem to be steering the interventions, or lack thereof. "So yes, there is a genuine shift, although reluctant and yet insufficient to honestly protect any risk groups," he added. Speaking to Newsweek, Tom Britton, a professor in mathematical statistics at Stockholm University, said: "In the summer it was discussed in the media and also by our public health agency what to do if/when a second wave might pop up. It seems like most people suggested: increased testing to quickly find such signs, local restrictions if/when transmission increases. "So far I think any local restrictions are still milder than the national restrictions during spring, but it could also happen that they can become more severe," Britton said. Dr. Joacim Rocklov, an epidemiologist at Sweden's Umea University, believes the latest measures indicate a shift in Sweden's COVID-19 strategy. "What's happened in the last couple of weeks is a movement towards a similar model to what has been used in Norway and many other countries," Rocklov told the Telegraph. Rocklov thinks witnessing a new rise in cases in Stockholm and other cities that saw infections soar in the spring, such as Milan and Madrid, challenged the public health agency's stance on herd immunity. Rocklov told the Telegraph: "I think they [Sweden's public health agency] must have been shocked by that, after all these strong claims that we were closing in on immunity in April and May. They must have realised that that's not really the case." Last Thursday, Tegnell said: "I think the obvious conclusion is that the level of immunity in those cities is not at all as high as we have, as maybe some people, have believed. People on Queens street in Stockholm, Sweden, pictured earlier this year on April 1. Sweden's public health agency is working with regional authorities to impose new restrictions following a recent rise in infections. Fredrik Sandberg/TT News Agency/AFP via Getty Images Confirmed cases in Sweden have reached at least 103,200, as of Monday. Weekly new cases declined from late June before flattening out from mid-July to late August, according to the WHO. The Scandinavian nation is currently "reporting community transmission" of the virus, reporting a 13 percent increase in its "14-day incidence value," according to the WHO's latest report Monday. The 14-day incidence value represents the "number of new cases reported per 100,000 population over the past 14 days. Percentages indicate change in 14-day cumulative incidence as compared to 14 days ago," the WHO noted. Earlier this month, the director general of Sweden's public health agency, Johan Carlson, noted: "We can expect that measures against the spread of corona will remain for some time, we're talking about at least another year," in an interview Sunday with Sweden's Sveriges Television (SVT). The wider picture The novel coronavirus has infected more than 40.1 million people across the globe since it was first reported in Wuhan, China, including over 8.1 million in the U.S. Globally, more than 1.1 million have died following infection, while more than 27.5 million have reportedly recovered as of Monday, according to Johns Hopkins University. The graphic below, provided by Statista, illustrates countries with the most COVID-19 cases. STATISTA The graphic below, also produced by Statista, illustrates regions across the globe seeing a rise in COVID-19 cases. STATISTA ------- It doesn't look like Sweden has herd immunity as many stated last month without and verification of such. Yet...nor does the rest of the world. As the number of infections continue to rise in short time spans...looks like a vaccine will be the only way to achieve herd immunity unless about 70% of the world's population becomes infected. wrbtrader
This is as of today... perhaps Sweden will do worse in the future.... but... 7 day moving averages Sweden 1 death per day 446 infections... https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/sweden/ vs... 21 Deaths Per Day 2326 infections https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/canada
Apparently you aren't much better at understanding charts then Jem. Occasionally I've listed some key stats of Canada versus the states/countries where the most vocal Covid deniers on here live. Funny how those numbers and disparities get ignored; the disparities are massive. Canada's death per million is 258, versus Florida which is 746. I live in Ontario. New infections haven't grown at all in 5 days, our economic numbers and job recovery numbers are quite good, and all our schools are open. We'll flatten the curve as many times as we need to.
Italy so much warmer than Sweden too. Florida not a neighbor to Canada. As usual, you've made contradictory statements and now you're doing gymnastics to get out of them. Full. Of. Shit.
I just asked a simple question. No need to get all pissy about it. I just remember you telling me how the curve had been flattened, and me saying "that's because you're not open. Once you open up, you'll see it come back." And hey, here we are. Glad Ontario is open. People need to live their lives.
It really is staggering to observe Jem desperately hanging on to this thread as if he can redeem himself by continually talking. He was completely wrong then, his small mind is still being wrong now. He should just apologise and shut up.
Wrong about what douchebag? I predicted this would happen and then ceased posting back in July. Sadly, I could not have been more correct... as a few others have been.
As White House eyes 'herd immunity,' Sweden's no-mask approach is failing to contain COVID-19 https://sports.yahoo.com/as-white-h...is-failing-to-contain-covid-19-151813672.html Fresh from arrival at Spain’s El Prat Airport, the bald, middle-aged man strode across the terrace of a popular Barcelona restaurant, giving bear hugs and dramatically kissing old friends as well as new acquaintances. “He was touching everybody and spit-talking,” said Carmen Oko, a teacher, “and he kept coughing in everyone’s faces.” When Oko yelled across the terrace demanding that the visitor cover his mouth when he coughed, he told her to stop being paranoid, everyone would eventually get COVID-19 anyway. appearance of encouraging herd immunity by allowing some to get sick until a base immunity is established. It is a concept gaining favor in the Trump administration, whose policies increasingly reflect the minority views of the president’s coronavirus adviser, Dr. Scott Atlas, a radiologist with no expertise in epidemiology or public health." data-reactid="31">When another witness to the spectacle asked why he was blatantly defying public health recommendations, he said that Spain, where face masks are mandated (except for in restaurants, now believed to be a major source of spread), has it all wrong. The correct approach, he said, was that of his home country of Sweden, where the government has taken a laissez-faire attitude, strongly discouraging mask use, emphasizing personal responsibility and giving at least the appearance of encouraging herd immunity by allowing some to get sick until a base immunity is established. It is a concept gaining favor in the Trump administration, whose policies increasingly reflect the minority views of the president’s coronavirus adviser, Dr. Scott Atlas, a radiologist with no expertise in epidemiology or public health. But in hard-hit Spain, which has the highest cumulative number of COVID-19 cases in the European Union and where, with national cases surging over 13,000 a day, capital Madrid is again under lockdown and new restrictions are going into effect all over the country, that behavior was considered outrageous, driving at least one patron out of the restaurant and home, he said, to shower. “Now Sweden has the lowest COVID rate in all Europe,” the visitor boasted, though statistics refute his claim. Not to mention that he was ignoring even the recommendations that the Swedish Public Health Agency did make, including social distancing, frequent washing of hands and coughing into elbows. With infection rates now rising in Sweden — though not to the extremes of countries such as Spain, France, Belgium and the U.K. — the Swedish prime minister himself recently implored his countrymen to stop hugging and kissing their friends, and for youth to stop partying, all factors blamed for the uptick in cases to more than 600 a day, up from around 100 at summer’s end. A country larger than California in size but with a mere 10 million residents, Sweden is the renegade country that’s turned into an internationally observed lab experiment in COVID-19 control. In the early days of the pandemic, the Swedish government was slammed for being reckless, even by Trump — refusing the lockdowns adopted by its Scandinavian neighbors and keeping most everything open, businesses, restaurants and schools (except for students older than 15, whose classes went online). But with the ascendancy of Atlas, who has praised the Swedish model, it’s getting another look. The Public Health Agency has denied that it ever sought to achieve herd immunity by letting much of its society get sick (although that assertion is contradicted in the agency’s emails) but rather tried to balance the impact on hospitals with concerns about the economy. Whatever its original motives, it remains unconventional in its policies, including dismissing the use of face masks, saying they give false security, a contention that one vocal group of Swedish health and science researchers and professionals, calling itself Vetenskapsforum (Science Forum) COVID-19, takes issue with, along with most of the Swedish government’s approach. In a video titled “You Should be Protected,” the group says the Swedish government’s anti-mask messaging and the idea that the face coverings themselves are dangerous because they are so difficult to use correctly, has become so ingrained that public employees, from teachers to ophthalmologists to nurses, have been badgered, even fired, for wanting to wear masks. It also contends that anti-face covering policy may be linked to unnecessary deaths. Sweden’s death rates put it at No. 17 among the world’s 191 countries." “Mortality in Sweden has by far exceeded the mortality observed in the other Nordic countries,” the group states on its website. “Sweden is actually today among the highest countries in the world when it comes to deaths per capita from COVID-19.” In fact, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, Sweden’s death rates put it at No. 17 among the world’s 191 countries. With nearly 6,000 deaths — about half of those in its eldercare facilities, where 7 percent of residents have died — the Swedish mortality rate (58.12 per 100,000) adjusted for population is five times as high as neighboring Denmark’s (11.83 per 100,000) and nearly 12 times higher than Norway’s (5.23 per 100,000), and only a little better than the U.S., at 67.28 per 100,000. The country’s coronavirus infection rate also remains far higher — twice that of neighboring Denmark and three times higher than Norway, both of which encourage mask use. Vetenskapsforum COVID-19 asserts that due to a paucity of testing at the start of the pandemic and the types of tests used in Sweden, the number of cases could actually be far higher than reported. Whatever its actual numbers, with a second wave slamming Europe — leading France to impose a nationwide 9 p.m. curfew, and Belgium and the Netherlands to shutter bars and eateries — the Swedish government appears to be backpedaling, or at least considering modifying its hands-off stance. Last week, the national health agency handed localities the right to decide their own policies, which may lead to municipal mask mandates, even partial lockdowns of hard-hit cities like college town Uppsala. The rising rates in Sweden have compelled Denmark to flag it as a no-go zone. “We Danes always admired Sweden as a good society,” says Peter Julius, who is training to be a hypnotherapist. “But since coronavirus, and their no-mask policy, we’re like ‘What are you doing?’” But polls show that the government’s policies, while declining somewhat in approval, still remain popular in the country, with 58 percent supporting the policies of the Public Health Agency. And though the Swedish “it’s up to you” model may well not work in other countries, Swedes are quick to point out that their situation is unique. “Sweden is sparsely populated, and nearly half the population lives in one-person households,” notes Helena Centerwall, a Swede running a bed-and-breakfast in Spain. “It’s easier to isolate if you’re already isolated.” “Swedes socially distance by nature,” says Ann Sjostrom, who works as a substitute teacher in a town an hour’s drive from Stockholm. “We stay at home. When we go out, we go for walks in nature.” And the transportation authorities are encouraging Swedes to avoid mass transit. “Why not ride your bike?” asks the website of one regional bus service. “Or do you really need to go out at all?” “I like the Swedish way more,” says psychotherapist Ulf Hedqvist, who divides his time between Barcelona and Västeras, Sweden. On a recent trip to Barcelona, he noted two behaviors that certainly have contributed to the rising numbers in Spain. While most locals wore masks, “many failed to cover their nose — some even wore the masks on their throats,” he says. And it’s easier to socially distance in Sweden. “Here, we’re not kissing and hugging all the time like they do in Barcelona,” he says. Yet another factor for the surge in Spain, say commuters: jam-packed rush-hour metro cars — a situation that has prompted protests in Madrid. Former heart surgeon Gunnar Brandrup-Wognsen, who volunteered in the ICU of a Göteborg hospital during the peak of Sweden’s outbreak, likewise supports his government’s approach. He’s been dismayed when he travels to other countries, such as France, and sees many using “cheap, ineffective masks” that they put on, then pull off and keep reusing, giving a sense of false security. “You think you’re safe, so then you don’t adhere to social distancing,” he says. Despite a slowness to test and trace, and the loss of so many seniors, he believes that Sweden has done a fine job of balancing public health and hospital concerns with the economy and society. “Of course we won’t know if this was the right approach until we can look back in the rearview mirror.” But dissent in the country where very few don face coverings can be found in surprising places. Take for instance Jack Sjöstrom, a high school senior. “The World Health Organization recommends wearing masks,” he says, “and I’m going to listen to them.” The civics major finds the Swedish approach “pretty worrying,” wants more “evidence-based” policies and is concerned about Sweden’s relatively high death rate. The only one in his family to wear a face mask, which he uses whenever he leaves home, he’s also the only one in his school to wear one in class, which has led to some mockery. “Some kids fake-cough whenever they see me in my mask,” he says. But, being good Swedes, they fake-cough into their elbows.