Looks Like Sweden Was Right After All
https://www.unz.com/mwhitney/looks-like-sweden-was-right-after-all/
I've talked to many many people about this including my wife who spent many years on the floor as a nurse, has a doctorate in nursing practice and teaches at University (since you seem to think that appeal to the many and appeal to educational advancement bolsters your argument, perhaps you'll see it as bolstering mine as well) Sweden ABSOLUTELY DID take the best possible course of action when looking at overall outcomes. Read the article again(?) (seems you didn't read it yet at all), and (this time?) try to comprehend it.
@sda
I did read the article. I am writing a response directly engaging with it.
@sda Fair. As much as the argument from authority works for people whose scientific illiteracy would prevent them from even understanding a deeper argument, it was unfair for me to assume this. I apologize for my premature assumption.
The first problem: the article correctly notes that Sweden's fatality rate is 543 / million, but fails to adequately compare it:
> Sweden's neighbours had far lower rates: 105 / million for Denmark, 59 / million for Finland, 29 / million for Iceland, 47 / million for Norway.
> Sweden's death rate is worse than the US rate of 423 / million.
> Sweden's death rate is the 7th highest in the world.
(Source: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries)
The second problem is the strategy itself. Herd immunity only works even theoretically if immunity from infection lasts for a long time. If it wears off after, say, 3-12 months, then herd immunity from infection is not going to work. As it is now, we *still* don't know how long immunity from COVID-19 infection lasts, and there is evidence that it may be as short as 3 months. (https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.09.20148429v1)
On the other hand, locking down for a sufficiently long enough time curbs the spread of the virus (in theory if you did it for 2-3 months perfectly, you could eliminate the virus) and social distancing and hygiene work to curb transmission wherever people can potentially transmit the virus. For evidence of this, see New York State or New Zealand.
@sda I have talked to many, many Swedes about this, many disease experts, and discussed the issue with my parents. Sweden did not do the right thing.