I live in North Carolina in the U.S. -- but have worked extensively in Europe over time. Including time at STR (Swedish Telecom Radio -- now just ST) early in my career back in the 80s when I worked for a company owned by Ericsson. The real problem is the pushing of fabricated narratives for "natural herd immunity", "only lockdown the at-risk", etc. -- using Sweden as an example. As admitted by their Prime Minister and King, Sweden failed in its efforts with COVID. They stated their "no lockdown" policy was a complete failure -- this is directly from the country's leadership. Now Sweden is on the path of using the best public health practices to address COVID including restrictions and lockdowns. The country recently approved new federal laws to implement lockdowns from the federal level. Somehow posters like Jem are still stuck on their political narrative and unwilling to face the facts. When the leaders in Sweden state their country's no lock-down policy was a complete failure -- you would think that outside observers would take their word for it --- and not try to still promote Sweden as some type of no lock-down success example (which it is not). Early in the pandemic proposals for non-mainstream public health policies (e.g. no lock-downs) possibly deserved a hearing. Now that we have seen the documented record of failure when countries apply these policies including extensive misery and death -- the debate is over. The nails have been placed in the coffin of failed public health policies such as "no lock-downs", "only lock-down the at-risk", etc. to address a global pandemic. Similarly we have glowing success from countries such as New Zealand which applied traditional & proper public health policies. It is time to leave the failed public health policies in the dustbin of history; the debate is over.
Business after business is being forced to close or reduce staffing in Sweden due to the current COVID outbreak... the country is quickly becoming overwhelmed by the new B117 variant with the northern Vasterbotten region having a significant outbreak. Swedish Covid Outbreak Forces Northvolt to Cut Factory Staffing https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...eak-forces-northvolt-to-cut-factory-stafffing An outbreak of Covid-19 has forced battery-cell producer Northvolt AB to reduce staffing at the construction site of its first large-scale factory in Skelleftea, Sweden. The privately-held company, which was founded by two former Tesla Inc. executives, will temporarily halve the number of workers at the site to about 500 as a result of the virus, spokesman Jesper Wigardt confirmed by phone. The infection rate has already caused concern in the local community and forced tighter restrictions in the Vasterbotten region of northern Sweden, which has seen the number of Covid-19 cases double in the past week. Since the beginning of the year, Northvolt has registered about 200 infections among workers at the site, and the region’s head of infection control, Stephan Stenmark, said it’s also the country’s largest known outbreak of the B117 variant, which is believed to be more contagious. “It’s a giant project with a lot of employees and a lot of people connected to the site who partly live together,” Stenmark said in an interview with public broadcaster SVT on Thursday. “It’s clearly very serious.” The Northvolt Ett factory is scheduled to start production at the end of this year, with the first phase of the projectaiming toreach capacity of 16 GWh. The company is also preparing to build a 16 GWh factory in Germany through a joint venture with Volkswagen AG. Workers in essential roles or with temporary accommodation in Skelleftea, as well as those recently recovered from the infection, will be allowed to continue working at the site, Wigardt said. The remainder will not be allowed to return until Feb. 25. The company said it has initiated large-scale testing to identify cases, and Wigardt doesn’t expect the outbreak to delay the project.
My family on my mother side (Europe / France) are big time Ski fanatics including my ex-spouse, her family and my children. We've skied at many of the world's top ski destinations including in a few Scandinavian countries. Prior to the Pandemic, we were planning a big family vacation (reunion) to Sweden for 2021 plus a few members in the family (French side) were considering retiring to Sweden. Pandemic hit in 2020...all plans changed dramatically. That's my connection or attempt to connect to Sweden until the Pandemic showed up out of nowhere. Whistler, Courchevel, Aspen on my list of favorites but not on the list of other family members. I have a lot of good memories of Whistler and Courchevel since my youth. I'm slowly rebuilding family connections back to Europe...looking forward to the conclusion of this Pandemic. Yeah, I know too well how the prior two Sweden threads started here at ET via the political narrative but its goes beyond rationale why they continue with the debates after the Swedish government has publicly admitted natural herd immunity has failed and that trying to isolate the high risk has never been a successful healthcare policy in a Pandemic due to the fact that many in the high risk do not know they're high risk... Many more live in multi family households or exposed to employees / workplace vendors of long term care facilities. Just as strange, not one of the people that keeps supporting Sweden healthcare policy during the Pandemic has disclosed their connection to Sweden. In fact, every one of them have not acknowledge what the Sweden government and Swedish health officials now know for fact... The best way / only to herd immunity is via vaccination and not natural herd immunity. The latter would have cost millions of lives...causing a more devastating economic impact in comparison to lockdowns / restrictions / vaccination especially when the mutated variants shows up. Also, only a minority of the high risk group can be isolated...not a majority of them. In addition, restrictions do work but I'm not a fan of lockdowns while I'm a fan of restrictions. Re-opening obviously failed. You said... It's now working in Sweden and in many countries because people are letting the restrictions do their job, people are becoming better educated about how to minimize Covid-19, more people are becoming vaccinated and Doctors / Nurses are more experience in treating those hospitalized (reducing deaths)... I can easily see vaccinated herd immunity by end of 2021. Those here at ET that continue to ignore why Sweden and many countries are now seeing declining numbers in the infections / hospitalization / deaths although there's a few outbreaks here and there... What are they trying to accomplish involving a country they have no vested interested ??? Eristic in Character wrbtrader
Sick Comedy... From the poster who denies the damage the lockdowns and the lockouts have done... With no factual basis for showing that lockdowns have done anything... when compared to the countries which have light or no lockdowns. You are twisted SOB denying the damage you lockdowns have done to kids... You are the moron who keeps posting this anti Swedish propaganda... because during this wave you and your press... can't stand that for months now the Swedes have done as well or better than many of your lockdown countries by many measures. They are tracking better than Germany with respect to deaths...(but very similar.) You see moron since day 1 I have not accepted what politicians have been saying. I look at the facts and the data.... The politicians have destroyed lives and made shit up... without data backing them up. I live in a lockdown state... our moron governor closed beaches... without any data showing covid spread outdoors at the beach in any significant or any data at all. He did the same with playgrounds... And you were cheerleading that bullhshit. YOu have lied about covid and damage at least 50 times. You denied basic studies from the CDC showing masks did not protect in a statistically significant manner those who reportedly wore them all the time vs those who did not. You are a liar.
Still improving... relative to Germany... Its incredible morons are still acting like Sweden is a failure during this second wave. They has spike like almost every other open area.. and it is dropping off significantly. https://ourworldindata.org/coronavi...othing=7&pickerMetric=location&pickerSort=asc
Sweden is recently improving because of their restrictions in contrast to what others say does not work. Sweden is recently improving because of they have more people wearing facemask, social distancing and hand washing although in many places not required to wear a face mask. Simply, more people in Sweden have better public awareness about the dangers of Covid-19. Sweden is now prepare to go to the next step (Federal laws) is things are to get worst again. Sweden is recently improving because more people are being vaccinated. Natural herd immunity failed...admitted by the Sweden Government and Sweden health officials. Isolating the high risk not a viable healthcare policy due to the characteristics of infection via Covid-19. Other countries that did not lockdown but had a mandate for face mask wear...outperform Sweden since Day 1 in their Covid-19 statistics and continues to do such today. End of story wrbtrader
The COVID risks Sweden is currently facing include: Slow rollout of vaccines due to lack of doses (an issue faced by all EU nations). The fast spread of the new U.K. B.1.1.7 variant which is more infectious. The population not following new restriction including cities that are resistant to wearing masks due to previous incorrect guidance regarding masks.
Let's take a look the most recent COVID news from Sweden... The latest numbers to know about the coronavirus in Sweden https://www.thelocal.se/20210211/the-latest-numbers-to-know-about-the-coronavirus-in-sweden-february Here's a look at the latest updates from Sweden's bi-weekly press conference, including the spread of new variants and the vaccination programme. Sweden's total coronavirus death toll has reached 12,370, with a total of 604,577 confirmed cases. But state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell said that a downturn in newly reported cases had "unfortunately tailed off". "We still have a high spread of infection. If we look at admissions to intensive care [for Covid-19], it has gone down significantly, but here too the downturn has begun to tail off," he said. A representative for Sweden's regions, Anna Carlsson, warned that some businesses were confused over how to apply the pandemic law – which requires them to limit customer numbers based on usable space on the premises – and that customers and visitors do not always understand or follow the national recommendations. "There is crowding in queues outside shops and shopping centres; many still choose to go shopping in groups or with the whole family, despite shops giving clear messages that you should not do this," she warned, citing parcel collection points and gym receptions as specific areas that had difficulties managing crowding. "We all need to follow the recommendations that exist, and that includes looking out for information on signs and above all, respecting it." New variants become increasingly widespread The agency also warned that the new variant of Covid-19 that was first discovered in the UK is now widespread in Sweden. In Västra Götaland, the new variant made up one in five positive Covid-19 tests that were sequenced for it. The corresponding figure in Gävleborg was 16 percent, 12 percent in Skåne, and nine percent in Västmanland. The main danger of the new variant is that it is thought to be more infectious than the original variant, with Tegnell saying different models show it could be between 30 and 70 percent more infectious. Sweden is continuing to boost its capacity to test for new variants, and is currently sequencing around ten percent of positive tests – but this rate varies between regions. A reporter from Reuters asked if the rise of the new variant might be the reason for the stagnated decline of new cases. "It's hard to know, we have too little data for this kind of analysis," Tegnell responded. "It's a bit mixed: some outbreaks where the British variant is behind it, but others where the original variant is behind it." Tegnell was also asked about a recent recommendation from the American CDC for the public to wear two face masks. "If you double the density, you probably will get the number of virus particles down. It also means that respiratory resistance is twice as great, it is harder for the public to use face masks," said Tegnell. Four out of five care home residents vaccinated A total of 331,389 people have been given at least one dose of vaccine, and 101,507 have been given both doses. That means just over four percent of the adult population have received at least one dose. So far Sweden is in the first phase of the vaccination programme, meaning vaccines are being given to people resident in care homes for the elderly or receiving at-home care, as well as people who care for or share a household with this group. Among residents of care homes for the elderly, 80 percent have received their first dose, and for people who receive at-home care the figure is one in three (32 percent).
Let's get a dose of reality from a resident of Sweden on how "protecting the vulnerable" worked out with no lock-downs. Sweden's Pandemic Strategy Deadly for Most Vulnerable https://www.newsweek.com/swedens-pandemic-strategy-deadly-most-vulnerable-opinion-1568277 In Sweden, the foreign-born are overrepresented among COVID-19 deaths. It is no secret. Neither the Swedish media nor the country's politicians are willing to discuss the tragedy publicly. Is the reality too hard to handle for a country that considers itself to be one of the most humanitarian in the world? Thirty-eight people I know passed away from COVID-19. They are relatives, friends and acquaintances. Among them my beloved uncle Melek, my aunt Ziyane, my relative by marriage and good friend's 41-year-old son Lutfi, my father's friend the priest Munir Barbar's son Jean, my mother's friends Maryam and Nabihat, my father's friends Abdulmesih, Samuel and Davut. Churches are now closed for mass in Sweden. Many of us fear that our feelings of sorrow will return when they open up again. Forty-eight people from my church have passed away from the disease. I close my eyes and see their faces, hear their laughter and prayers ... when the church eventually opens, they won't be in the pews. It could have been different if Sweden had only listened to their foreign-born. I'm of course aware that I live in one of the best countries in the world. We have an outstanding welfare system and I'm very grateful to be one of the privileged people that migrated here. I was recently hospitalized for COVID-19 and the doctors did an amazing job curing me. But we must dare to speak out about our country's problems. During the last couple of weeks, the Swedish media has at last woken up to its responsibility and started to question the government and the unique strategy it used to handle the outbreak of the coronavirus. Both the Swedish public radio's flagship Ekots lördagsintervju and public television's Agenda recently interviewed Prime Minister Stefan Löfven and others in charge. They are questioning the Swedish method in handling COVID-19, now that we have over 12,000 dead. For a country with only 10 million inhabitants, that's a very high death toll. But in none of the interviews was the overrepresentation of foreign-born deaths mentioned. No lockdown was ever in place; only recommendations and restrictions that the authorities trust Swedish people to follow, because to them not restricting personal freedom is most important. The Swedish government and its authorities have promised that the most vulnerable in society will be protected. But that hasn't happened—not for the elderly who were gasping for air in nursing homes or immigrants for whom the strategy was not suitable. At the beginning of the pandemic, Sweden's public health officials stated that the coronavirus would not spread in the country and there was no need to worry. But those of us who knew the immigrant situation did worry. We knew that if a deadly virus made its way to socio-economically vulnerable areas it would be hard to stop. Many with immigrant backgrounds live in crowded places. They are questioning the Swedish method in handling COVID-19, now that we have over 12,000 dead. For a country with only 10 million inhabitants, that's a very high death toll. But in none of the interviews was the overrepresentation of foreign-born deaths mentioned. No lockdown was ever in place; only recommendations and restrictions that the authorities trust Swedish people to follow, because to them not restricting personal freedom is most important. The Swedish government and its authorities have promised that the most vulnerable in society will be protected. But that hasn't happened—not for the elderly who were gasping for air in nursing homes or immigrants for whom the strategy was not suitable. At the beginning of the pandemic, Sweden's public health officials stated that the coronavirus would not spread in the country and there was no need to worry. But those of us who knew the immigrant situation did worry. We knew that if a deadly virus made its way to socio-economically vulnerable areas it would be hard to stop. Many with immigrant backgrounds live in crowded places. I spoke to Romanian beggars, Nigerian dishwashers, Iraqi cab drivers, Syrian waiters, Turkish market owners, Finnish pensioners and Ugandan carpet washers. Some of them are Swedes, meaning Swedish citizens; others are former asylum seekers who stayed because their home country refused to receive them. Others are people who are undocumented residents in the so called "shadow community." They have never applied for any kind of residency in Sweden and are therefore not registered. Nearly all of those I spoke to lacked basic knowledge about the virus. I was not surprised by how little they knew about what was going on around them. They work long hours and in many cases, must support poor and sick relatives in their respective native countries. Many did not understand or speak Swedish. On March 3, 2020, I was at my mother's home in Södertälje. Home care staff was there, as they were expected to be, four times per day. They were not allowed to wear gloves, masks nor hand sanitizer. My mom is battling many illnesses. She suffers from severe asthma, goiter, cardiovascular disease and is wheelchair-bound. That day I decided to stay with my mother. I was afraid that she would get infected from the staff that was supposed to care for her. I remained with her for three months. On March 11, 2020, the first person that died with the diagnosis of COVID-19 was registered in Sweden. That same day the communications company Bright Mind Agency and I started a virtual campaign to help the most vulnerable. We launched a website called TellCorona with videos in 15 languages featuring celebrities—that immigrants would recognize—urging them to take preventive action to stop the spread of the virus. On April 4, I asked the authorities about the death toll in Stockholm. I was told that 229 had died. By that time, I knew that 48 Assyrians/Syriacs had died of the disease. Nearly one quarter of the total. Then the Somali Doctors' Association raised the alarm and said that Somalis also were overrepresented among the dead. The math was not hard to do. There were other reasons for our concern: cultural and traditional. Many Swedes of foreign origin live close to their elderly, if not in the same house or in the same neighborhood. We pointed out, among other things, that immigrants were overrepresented in occupations where it is impossible to work from home, that they need to take public transportation to work. They also often live in overcrowded neighborhoods. For a couple of months, while we were hearing one ambulance after the other taking family, friends and neighbors to hospitals, we kept asking the government for numbers. Were we overrepresented? And why? Would the Swedish government change its strategy to stop us from getting infected? In June, the Swedish Public Health Agency published a report declaring that the foreign-born were overrepresented among those that died with COVID-19. But this report did not show how many among the dead had one or two immigrant parents. The overrepresentation is even higher if they are counted. In mid January 2021, I asked the government about new numbers. In an email to me on January 27, Malin Ahrne, an investigator at the Public Health Agency, wrote that they had prepared a new report comparing Swedish-born and foreign-born COVID deaths. She said it would be published in a few weeks. They had not looked at data relating to foreign-born children this time either. But at least now they admitted that they should have listened to us. "Exactly how it comes about that COVID-19 affected foreign-born more is probably due to a combination of certain residential areas being affected more by COVID. They may be more vulnerable due to people living more densely packed areas, more families living in overcrowded conditions, more multi-generational families living together, more people working in service professions or other professions where you cannot keep social distance and more. There is nothing to indicate that there are any genetic or cultural explanations or the like," Ahrne wrote. It became clear the government would not take action to prevent more COVID-related deaths. Just days after I received Ahrne's email, the Public Health Agency recommended that people living in socially vulnerable situations, such as the homeless and undocumented, should be prioritized for vaccination. After massive criticism from the biggest Swedish opposition conservative party Moderaterna and many others, the Public Health Agency withdrew the recommendation and said that there was no precise definition of "undocumented." Now we are back to square one. Our work to shed light on the vulnerable shadow and immigrant societies and their fatal relationship with COVID continues at the hands of a government that doesn't want to or dare to face reality.