Make sure you check behind you when you're back peddling. Its a dangerous activity. Many, many posts in this thread are about whether Sweden's chosen path was a success. Many posts are not limited to Scandinavia. You attempted to cherry pick the data, then you got caught and tried to claim geography was important (it isn't). Then you tried to claim umbrage because you were "just following the thread's title". I'll let you get up now and dust yourself off. Or you can continue claiming "Sweden is not a success because the two countries on its border are so much better, as long as we don't pay attention to the rest of europe." As if that means jack squat.
Read comprehension. Go back to my initial post on page 79, it was the 3 countries, that's all. Where is this backpedaling?? Do you understand what's written? There is something seriously wrong with you.
Right, I get it. There's always something seriously wrong with me whenever I pop you in the nose on these threads. Lets examine your original post, shall we? Your attempt here is to paint Sweden as not being a success because of their desire to not lockdown, right? Or are you going to pretend this isn't your attempt here? Because if you will now try to tell me that wasn't your point, we'll have to have an entirely different argument. And if you are trying to compare Sweden to its two neighbors only in order to make your point that Sweden isn't a success because it didn't lock down, then you also have to consider other countries that locked down in Europe and their numbers as well, or else you are cherry picking the data. That is, unless you can make a cogent argument as to why we should only be considering three countries in the data set. I await that argument with baited breath! So if you can't make that argument, then you need to consider other countries in Europe. Otherwise you aren't making an honest comparison. I'm not suggesting we compare Sweden to Zambia or Thailand. I'm suggesting other European countries in the region that would have similar behaviors and environmental factors, etc... Why should we not compare those countries if we are going to look at whether Sweden's approach is a success?
Sweden's neighboring counties are similar in lifestyle, population density, age statistics, diet, and many other factors. Comparing Sweden with its neighboring countries is much more appropriate than trying to compare it to Italy which has a much older population.
Of course it's more appropriate. And if it showed a better story than its neighbors, there'd be a different excuse as to why we couldn't just look at the two countries neighboring it, I'm sure. Belgium has similar lifestyle and population density, age statistics. The diet may be different, and the "many other factors" is whatever you choose it to be to further your point. You have no idea what factors cause what contagion here. In fact, that's why the Deaths per 1M pop even exists in the first place. To try to level the playing field. You have nothing but anecdotal data to support a very flimsy narrative. We have to use Finland and Norway but we can't use Belgium and the UK. Because of lifestyle, doncha know! Teh Sci3nce!
This is something really wrong with this guy. The force (Trump support) is really strong in him. DeSantis must be selling retarded water in Florida or something.
Good Covid-19 News From Italy...and Sweden https://www.washingtonpost.com/busi...456656-d61d-11ea-a788-2ce86ce81129_story.html The lifting of Covid-19 lockdowns around the world was never going to be easy. But as infections are flaring up from Spain to Australia, it’s worth noting that two of the hardest-hit countries at the pandemic’s peak — Italy and Sweden — are keeping the virus’s spread under control. Daily confirmed cases in both nations are now averaging at around 200 each, well below their respective peaks, with no rebound in sight and no strain on hospitals. By contrast, the daily case count in Spain rose past 2,000 last week and France’s surpassed 1,000. This is by no means a second wave, but it’s worth asking what Italy and Sweden might be doing differently to manage the virus. These countries once stood out for the wrong reasons. Italy was the first European country hit by a Covid-19 surge and the first to impose a draconian lockdown. Sweden took a more liberal and controversial approach — at odds even with other Nordic countries — that kept schools open and broadly stuck to recommendations on social distancing and self-isolation rather than forced quarantine. While Italy’s lockdown arguably saved lives, it came late. Sweden’s, meanwhile, never came at all. On a per-capita basis, Italy’s death toll of more than 35,154 comes to about 600 per 1 million people, as does Sweden’s 5,743. Still, in the current post-peak phase, with Italy gradually reopening its economy and Sweden maintaining its policy, both countries seem to have found their stride in living with the virus. In Italy, top-down, public-health management of life after lockdown seems to be winning the day. As in other countries, social-distancing rules require people to keep one meter (3.3 feet) apart and to wear face masks in public indoor spaces or on public transit, but there’s a particularly high level of enforcement and rigor. Taking a train or going into an office building in Italy involves having your temperature checked. Going out to dinner means giving the restaurant your full contact details to ensure a potential infection transmission can be traced. Special forms must be filled in for access to tourist hot spots like Sardinia, Sicily and Puglia. In the northern region of Lombardy, the country’s original epicenter, masks have even been required outdoors. Breaking Covid-19 quarantine is a crime nationwide, with possible sanctions including fines or jail time. The effectiveness of these rules is a testament to people’s willingness and ability to follow them, says Rosanna Tarricone, associate professor in health-care management at Bocconi University. Regulations extend to how people dance in a nightclub or sunbathe on the beach. Without some level of buy-in, they wouldn’t get very far. Memories of the harrowing scenes as hospitals were overloaded with Covid-19 patients are also a motivator. There’s a feeling of collective responsibility mixed in with fear. If the lesson from Italy is that bureaucracy, enforcement and obedience are key to controlling Covid-19 outbreaks, Sweden appears contradictory at first glance. After much hesitation and questioning of its hands-off approach, especially after a grim death toll in nursing homes and a continued rise in infections in June, the country has stuck to it. There’s no mandatory mask-wearing in Sweden, social distancing is recommended rather than enforced, and people are generally advised to stay home if they’re feeling unwell. That the country’s curve has flattened will no doubt comfort anti-lockdown protesters in the U.S. who once exhorted: “Be more like Sweden.” But that would miss the point. Swedes haven’t benefited from simply “letting the virus rip” — their immunity levels are still low, antibody tests indicate — and they aren’t being told to throw caution to the wind. Behavioral changes have taken place: The flow of human traffic is still not back to normal in many areas, according to Google mobility data, and officials have regularly warned people that failure to respect social distancing would lead to tougher rules. Some rules have been tightened, from a ban on visits to elderly care homes to the shutdown of restaurants in Stockholm that weren’t following guidelines. Social distancing is paying off. This isn’t a model that can be easily reproduced elsewhere. Swedes are young, their country is sparsely populated, and a high proportion already live relatively isolated lives by working from home in single-occupancy households. But the secret here might be consistency. That’s a key component for ensuring Covid-19 policies are sustainable in the long run, according to Italian academic Giuliano Di Baldassarre, a professor of crisis management at Sweden’s Uppsala University. If the aim is to live with the virus until a treatment or vaccine is found, a stop-and-go approach to rules — such as the flip-flops most everywhere on whether face masks should be worn and where — might be counterproductive and make them impossible to enforce. So while Italy shows that alertness and intervention pay off, Sweden is a reminder that this is a marathon more than a sprint. There’s no quick fix or perfect template for Covid-19, and everyone makes mistakes. Italy’s closure of schools came with a huge cost that brought little benefit, while Sweden’s botched handling of care homes for the elderly probably led to deaths that could have been avoided. But as we move into a new phase of this pandemic the two countries are clearly worth watching. This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners. Lionel Laurent is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Brussels. He previously worked at Reuters and Forbes.
I don't support Trump and certainly don't plan on voting for him in the election. You'll have to try better. In fact, you'll have to try better in making your arguments around here as well.
Swedish GDP for Q2... performed better than southern Europe.... inline with its neighbors. Sweden’s second-quarter GDP fall was its worst in modern history — but outperformed many in Europe https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/05/swe...p-fall-still-outperformed-some-in-europe.html Sweden’s gross domestic product (GDP) tumbled 8.6% in the second quarter of the year. David Oxley, senior Europe economist at Capital Economics, told CNBC via email that Sweden’s sharp GDP contraction “confirms that it has not been immune to Covid, despite the government’s well-documented light-touch lockdown.” “Nonetheless, the economic crunch over the first half of the year was in a different league entirely to the horror shows in southern Europe,” he added. Sweden’s gross domestic product (GDP) tumbled 8.6% in the second quarter of the year, according to a flash estimate from the country’s statistics office on Wednesday, recording its largest single quarterly drop in modern history. The record decline, broadly in line with consensus, was significantly worse than even the fourth quarter of 2008 when the Nordic country recorded a fall of 3.8% during the global financial crisis. However, Sweden’s economy still outperformed many of its European counterparts over the three-month period through to the end of June. It follows the government’s decision not to impose a full-scale lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus. David Oxley, senior Europe economist at Capital Economics, told CNBC via email that Sweden’s sharp GDP contraction “confirms that it has not been immune to Covid, despite the government’s well-documented light-touch lockdown.” “Nonetheless, the economic crunch over the first half of the year was in a different league entirely to the horror shows in southern Europe,” he added. The euro zone’s economy contracted by 12.1% in the second quarter when compared to the previous quarter and by 11.9% across the broader European Union. The Spanish economy recorded the sharpest decline among member states when compared to the previous quarter, falling 18.5%. It was followed by Portugal (-14.1%) and France (-13.8%), respectively, over the same period. Germany, often described as Europe’s growth engine, recorded a drop of 10.1% when compared to the first three months of the year. Robert Bergqvist, chief economist at SEB bank, told CNBC via email that considering Sweden’s stronger first quarter, Swedish GDP in the first half of the year had declined “only by around half as much as GDP in the euro area.” “Euro area growth seems to be rebounding more strongly in Q3, but we predict the Swedish economy to continue to outperform euroland also going forward,” he added. Sweden’s GDP increased by 0.1% in the first quarter, when seasonally adjusted and compared to the final three months of 2019. The median forecasters in a Reuters poll of economists had expected to see a 0.6% contraction on a quarterly basis. Contrarian coronavirus response In direct contrast to many countries across Europe, Sweden has kept most schools, particularly for younger children, and many businesses open in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. The absence of a full-scale lockdown has coincided with the country recording more Covid-19 infections and related fatalities than all of its Nordic neighbors combined — Finland, Denmark, Norway and Iceland. To date, Sweden has reported 81,181 cases of the coronavirus, with 5,747 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Care home deaths had reportedly accounted for almost half of all fatalities linked to the coronavirus in Sweden in the first half of the year. (More at above url)