Re: CV and mad panic behaviour
Reply #4826 –
Sweden like Israel has one of the highest vaccination rates going around, they are already up near 80% despite also having one of Europe's highest infection rates. ( A bit ironic given the anti-vaxers hold them up as an example for herd immunity. ) I think that combined with other various restrictions and measures they did or didn't take made it a more dynamic environment, but keep in mind they still have had 15,000 people perish to get to this point!
They suffered a significant recent (over Sweden's winter) increase in deaths, as the toll of not locking down affects the vulnerable population. There may be other geographic and societal considerations as well, that may have an impact on how Sars-CoV-2 is transmitted and survives in the environment.
We've seen these seasonal trends before starting with the 1st wave, people always come out and talk about such trends like they are definitive but I feel that is based on the individual politics of the groups involved. Nobody and no region seems to escape the long term effects, you can only delay them to save lives in the process.
The biggest tell might be that bordering countries surrounding Sweden had about 1/5th the Swedish death rate.
Fans of anti-lockdown tout Sweden as the solution, but the economic price it has paid is still quite high, having been ostracised by many of it's neighbours it paid a pretty high economic price, still had the high death rates and now has a significant long term long COVID health cost / burden.
Perhaps, it really comes down to the political price put on a life!
The King of Sweden admitted in December that they had got it wrong, due to the amount of death, especially among the elderly.
That's the problem with just quoting statistics - it looks at cases and deaths like it's a batting average for a cricketer. It doesn't consider the stories behind the statistics, and the people and their families who have suffered.