Sweden didn't lockdown and might have herd immunity in weeks, according to their chief epidemiologist. It'll be interesting to see how this plays out in the long run.
“In major parts of Sweden, around Stockholm, we have reached a plateau (in new cases) and we’re already seeing the effect of herd immunity and in a few weeks’ time we’ll see even more of the effects of that. And in the rest of the country, the situation is stable,” Dr. Anders Tegnell, chief epidemiologist at Sweden’s Public Health Agency
Tegnell said sampling and modeling data indicated that 20% of Stockholm’s population is already immune to the virus, and that “in a few weeks’ time we might reach herd immunity and we believe that is why we’re seeing a slow decline in cases, in spite of sampling (testing for the coronavirus) more and more.”
I would not really call the Swedish model successful - Czech Republic and Sweden have both about 10 million inhabitants.
Things moved pretty quickly to pretty comprehensive lockdown here in Czech Republic, including mandatory mask wearing. So far this seem to be effective, with combined death toll currently at 210. In comparison Sweden has almost 10x as much, 2010 dead.
Looks like if more has been done less people could have died, not to mention the alarming news about organ damage, virus resurgence and questionable long term immunity.
as others have said, the area under the curve remains the same. The idea with Sweden is, after one year, the deaths will be about the same as everywhere else.
If the hospitals get overcrowded, there will also be more people dying from other causes and suffering from long term consequences, because a percentage of them won't be able to receive adequate care.
I haven't seen any actual data on how big that impact might be, however.
Q is how many are dead when a region has 80% immunity (through vaccination or infection). Those dead should include also deaths due to lack of planned care, cuts in healthcare due to recession, suicides due to unemployment and so on.
Those countries that lock down and stop a first wave with only a few percent infected are basically betting on the arrival of effective treatment or effective containment.
Those that don’t are betting that containment is impossible and effective treatments and vaccines are a year out at least.
It’s impossible to say which scenario is right but I know I’d place my bet the same as the Swedish state epidemiologist.
I don't get it. We have numerous reports of the antibody tests being inaccurate. We have numerous reports suggesting you can get the disease twice => once does not equal immunity. So how exactly are these Swedish scientists testing for immunity?
Sweden hasn't done a government mandated lockdown, but has a lot of social distancing occurring. Also, I wouldn't use Sweden as an example of herd immunity since antibody tests are only coming on line, and many are unreliable. Besides look at Sweden's CFR. Not something I'd like to see in a modern country.
“In major parts of Sweden, around Stockholm, we have reached a plateau (in new cases) and we’re already seeing the effect of herd immunity and in a few weeks’ time we’ll see even more of the effects of that. And in the rest of the country, the situation is stable,” Dr. Anders Tegnell, chief epidemiologist at Sweden’s Public Health Agency
Tegnell said sampling and modeling data indicated that 20% of Stockholm’s population is already immune to the virus, and that “in a few weeks’ time we might reach herd immunity and we believe that is why we’re seeing a slow decline in cases, in spite of sampling (testing for the coronavirus) more and more.”
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/22/no-lockdown-in-sweden-but-st...