IFocus
You are arguing with a Galah
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They don't. Look at the data on the global scale.
Wuhan proved the effectiveness of lockdowns and, as you point out, those nations which have done best in combatting covid put in place lockdowns, in conjunction with other mitigation measures.There is endless misinformation regarding COVID you could start with lock downs don't work.
SNIP:
Conclusion
So, what do we make of all the above facts & figures ? Did Sweden really experience a severe deadly pandemic, a “once in 100 years flu”, with people dying in unprecedented numbers during 2020…?
A pandemic of a kind we’ve not encountered since the Spanish flu 1918…? Or did Sweden experience a severe flu with mortality about the same as past severe flu’s that tend to occur once or twice in every 20-30 years or so…?
I don’t particularly like the notion of “Excess Deaths”, since most of the time it’s impossible to know the answer to “Excess to what, exactly?”, as explained here, but below graph shows six different values for Swedish Excess Deaths 2020. They range from 7000to 1900, depending on the chosen calculation method and baseline.
Pick the number most appealing to you and your purposes.
“Excess Deaths”
In textual form, the Swedish “Excess Deaths” for 2020, computed by comparing “Expectation” vs outcome, with two different baselines, are then as follows:
2020 EXCESS DEATHS :
Absolute excess deaths cmp baseline 15-18 : 6429
Absolute excess deaths cmp baseline 15-19 : 6978
Population adjusted excess deaths cmp baseline 15-18 : 3251 Population adjusted excess deaths cmp baseline 15-19 : 4334
Age adjusted excess deaths cmp baseline 15-18 : 1901
Age adjusted excess deaths cmp baseline 15-19 : 3146
You’ll be the judge over whether the numbers above justify the “World’s Cautionary Tale” designation, or the restrictions on freedom, liberty, future and normal life that have been put in place.
My personal take on Covid 2020 in Sweden is as follows:
This post will end my own way too long and costly focus on Covid. I will now return to topics that are more rewarding and pleasant to work on.
- Yes, Covid 2020 was real (and continues to be real at least until spring 2021, as all seasonal viruses). The number of deaths 2020 was higher than it should have been, which ever way we define “Excess”. Not exceptionally higher, and far from all the disaster scenarios painted by media, politicians and failed scientists.
- Was Covid 2020 our generation’s “Spanish Flu” ? No. Far from it, as can be seen in the graph showing 1918 above, and by comparing mortality rates, where non-age-adjusted mortality 2020 is on par with that of 2012, and age adjusted mortality 2020 on par with 2013.
- Was the Swedish Government’s response adequate ? To a large extent yes. Until they panicked and lost their mind in November 2020, and introduced “The Swedish Enabling Act“, a form of legislation that is a disgrace to any nation pretending to be democratic.
- Where “The Strategy” failed was in protecting the frail and elderly, particularly in the care homes. The strategy also failed in overall crisis & contingency planning & management, where various governments since the early 90:ies have radically reduced investments and capacity in health care, care of elderly as well as many other vital parts of the societal safety net. So, the frequently repeated “Isolate, or our hospitals will be overwhelmed!” mantra was primarily caused by several decades of catastrophic political decisions and priorities regarding medical care and other critical societal function investments and resources, as much as by the virus itself.
- What the future brings will be seen by those who survive. Myself, I’m afraid that more doom & gloom will follow for a long time in the tracks of the “2020 Covid Experience”, even if we should manage to eliminate the virus, e.g. by vaccine, during 2021. The psychological effect on populations having spent a year or more in Lockdown, thus missing most of what makes life and living worthwhile, will be interesting to observe, as will be whether social interaction patterns and behaviors eventually return to normal, or whether our future social interactions will be so deeply ingrained by Anno Covidis that we will, similar to Pavlov’s dogs, continue regarding fellow human beings as potentially deadly virus vectors.
- Similarly, as this recent article (Swedish) shows – 90000 (!) medical treatments cancelled during 2020 – we will also have to expect further “Excess Deaths” down the road, where these deaths are only indirectly caused by Covid.
@wayneL needs to present a balanced perspective to be credible.
View attachment 118745
Excess deaths is a useful but inexact reference point for the severity of covid-19, as the above shows.
For the first few months of 2020 New Zealand experienced excess death rates up to 20 percentage points higher than Sweden, and that was before covid had any influence.
On the other hand Norway shows an excess death rate up to 10% in August/September despite a grand total of 17 covid deaths in that period:View attachment 118747
Numerous studies previously linked in ASF threads have shown Sweden to be a rather poor example of what "successful" represents in terms of thwarting covid. In particular, Denmark and Norway have done much better from both economic and covid mitigation perspectives.
If we compared Sweden with Brazil, the later widely recognised as being ravaged by covid, we learn that Sweden actually has a far higher per capita death rate.
Sweden is the poster child of those who believe little needed to be done, and all would be ok because this is just a bit worse than a seasonal flu. However the only way to paint such a rosy picture is to cherrypick sources.
A more comprehensible picture of covid's effects can be found in the USA where covid deaths are already equal to the total number of their soldiers who died in WWII. These deaths have occurred despite various mitigation strategies being implemented, which leaves us to wonder what would have happened if they did nothing at all. Or we could have looked at the UK which just experienced their highest daily death counts, and should have learnt by now what had to be done to counter such carnage.
Did you read the analysis?I think Sweden stopped being the poster boy for relaxed approach to COVID quite some time ago particularly after the economy tanked and then the King came out and publicly stated Sweden's approach had been a failure.
Did you read the analysis?
LOL, okay.I did it was twisted logic combined with presenting the data to back the argument.
It simply didn't stand up.
Personally I was hoping Sweden could be an outlier but COVID wasn't having any of it COVID just doesn't care about ideology.
LOL, okay.
Looking forward to your analysis of why that is so.
Winny, a student based in Australia, said she received an anal swab while in quarantine in the city of Guangzhou"Just endless shame. No other feelings. Good luck," Douyacai wrote.
I hope they use separate swabs.For all the posters on here, who reckon China have nailed the containment of the covid 19 outbreak, I wonder if there would be a similar round of hip, hip hooray for ScoMo if he introduced China's testing. ?
From the article:'Endless shame': Chinese social media responds to anal swab testing for COVID-19
China enforces strict new measures, including anal swab testing, as COVID-19 cases surge ahead of Lunar New Year, usually the country's busiest time for travel.www.abc.net.au
Groups deemed necessary for "close monitoring", including international arrivals, are being subjected to four tests — a nasal swab, a throat swab, a blood test and an anal swab.
"Applying extra anal swabs can improve the detection rate of infection and reduce missed diagnosis," Li Tongzeng, associate director of respiratory and infectious diseases at Beijing's You'an Hospital, told state broadcaster Central Chinese Television (CCTV).
Douyacai, a student returning from South Korea, had her anal swab in Beijing on her 14th day of quarantine.
She wrote that the test was carried out by medical personnel with two swabs.
Winny, a student based in Australia, said she received an anal swab while in quarantine in the city of Guangzhou
We on the east have plenty of toilet paper, happy to send some over to west friends. LolAttacks on McGowan from the East will just improve his polling for the coming election I would think.
It will be interesting to see how it got out after 10 months . Maybe people got lax.
Went down to do some panic buying at the local supermarket but out done by the hordes already there panic buying so went home.
Are you stocked up SP?
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