Covid and Sweden update

From yesterday’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

“Now, as infection numbers surge again in much of Europe, the country of 10 million people has some of the lowest numbers of new coronavirus cases — and only 14 virus patients in intensive care.”

“…it’s fashionable to praise Sweden”

“there were not as many [freedoms] as people had assumed”

I don’t have words other than if I hear about the magical Sweden one more time, I’m probably going to lose it. Also, here is a recent article about what might be brewing in Stockholm as people return from their summer vacations (Click the English translation):

From the article:

During Tuesday’s press conference, health director Björn Eriksson said that there are signs of an increased spread of infection in the county, even though it is still at relatively low levels. Last week, 526 cases of covid-19 were found in the region, out of 27,535 tested. To compare with 334 of 25,474 tested the week before, according to the Public Health Agency’s figures.

State epidemiologist Anders Tegnell also confirmed, at the Swedish Public Health Agency’s press conference, that discussions are taking place with Stockholm, due to the spread of infection.

The number of Covid cases are rising in practically all European countries, also in Sweden. What is different now is that a large proportion of the cases are in the age category 20-29 years, at least in the northernmost Europe. The long summer break in isolation + the start of the autumn season in universities and schools have lead to increased social activities among students and other young people. These free-time activities seem to be a major driver behind the increase in the number of covid cases.

Young people do not usually need intensive care. For example in Finland, there are currently only 2 covid patients in intensive care (population 5 M).

In the northernmost countries of Europe, the guidelines have stressed keeping distances, >1.5m between persons. Use of masks are recommended in indoor situations where this is not possible. These countries have low density populations and keeping distances is therefore easier than in the other European countries.

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Since Sweden took such a different approach, it certainly is beneficial to watch what happens there.

The comment in the article that “it is too early to tell” because countries are in different stages of the pandemic is a position I wrote weeks ago on another thread.

Yeah, and you implied in your OP now as you did then that Sweden did it right, contrary to your last, “it certainly is beneficial to watch.” Sure, it’s beneficial to watch, and, “it is [still] too early to tell”!

We should have had a federal mandate with teeth requiring appropriate masking on January 31.

You may have inferred something from the opening post that I did not imply.

The opening post gives the source of the article and quotes a sentence from the article.

We disagree on the appropriateness for a federal mandate with teeth on masking on January 31.

…about your intent. And definitely masking. 200,000 deaths and climbing.

Ok, we are free to disagree on my intent.

It is interesting that you seem to think you know my intent better than I do, but we can disagree on that too.

Meanwhile, here in Mexico, where there was an initial laissez-faire response, there is a huge death toll and people are starving. Pretending like there is some universal “right way” to deal with outbreaks or that whatever good outcomes Sweden had is directly related to government decisions to keep things open is silliness.

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I agree. There is no wisdom in a one-size-fits-all view. The situation in Sweden differs from Mexico, and the situation in Laramie differs from New York City.

The different approaches provide valuable insights.

To some extent, the different approaches serve as control groups for each other.

Universal masking with stipulations is still more than expedient.

:disappointed_relieved: (I just finished the article.)

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@pevaquark

Now that the virus has swept aside all the most vulnerable from Sweden, there will be no sudden increases of infected … because they are too busy mourning all the ones they killed in the prior six months!

Population immunity - - the HARD way!

The other Scandinavian countries have much lower deaths-per-million stats.

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Sweden has had 574 deaths per million compared to 109 and 49 deaths per million for Denmark and Norway respectively.

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My state governor’s sole stated goal in coronavirus restrictions is to protect hospital capacity. He is neglecting hospital morgue capacity, however.

@Dale

All he needs is a couple of refrigerator trucks … like New York City and Texas did to solve their capacity problem!

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I had that thought, too. Also in the mix is how many drawers the local funeral homes have and how fast they can unload the hospitals.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-sweden-pm/signs-covid-cases-rising-in-sweden-again-worrying-says-pm-lofven-idUSKCN26F1YL

On Thursday 533 new ones were reported, the highest daily number since early July.

Sweden may have experienced a delay on Europe’s second wave by being slightly removed from the mainland - briefly appearing to be supporting evidence for the already-got-herd-immunity theory, but they are definitely getting swept up in it now. And they are reporting much more daily cases per capita than neighbors Norway and Finland. Unfortunately it seems likely that Sweden’s death rate will climb higher still.

It’s worth commenting that European countries are not interchangeable in behaviours. The Nordic countries tend to be less extrovert in public behaviour, and also actually take notice of restrictions and modified behaviours that is requested of them. It has also been whimsically observed that the Swedes will be glad when 2m social distancing is phased out, as they can then return to their normal 10m social distance.

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