Sweden, which didn’t lock down, close their schools, borders, restaurants or bars – saw their economy grow during the first quarter.
Coronavirus: Sweden’s GDP actually grew in the first quarter
I have been stunned by the negative response to Sweden’s approach from all sides of the political spectrum. On April 14, a well known climate skeptic made this forecast of 230,000 deaths “if no effective vaccine is available.”
Most obviously, herd immunity for a highly infectious disease like this requires that well over 90% of the population become immune. (Here are some estimates of the percentage of the population which must be immune, to achieve herd immunity for some other infectious diseases.) If no effective vaccine is available, that requires that >90% of the population be infected. Since this is a disease which has, under the best of conditions, a 2.5 ±0.5 percent fatality rate, that means >90% of (2.5±0.5)% of 10,230,000 dead Swedes.
He missed by a factor of 200, and Sweden is rapidly approaching zero deaths.
Reported Covid-19 deaths in Sweden | Swedish Covid-19 statistics
Coronavirus latest: Sweden sees no new deaths for first time in 11 weeks | News | DW | 31.05.2020
Sweden followed the same trajectory as other Northern Hemisphere countries which had problems in nursing homes.
Daily confirmed COVID-19 deaths per million: are we bending the curve?
Their forecast death count of 5,000 will barely show up as noise in their annual average death count of 90,000. Many of the people who died in Sweden (and everywhere else) would have died this year anyway.
Sweden’s schools, universities, borders and economy are open. The public is largely confident of herd immunity. Compare this to New Zealand who has their borders closed, no immunity, and draconian laws – which allow home invasion by police over virus suspicions.
COVID-19 Public Health Response Bill 246-1 (2020), Government Bill 20 Powers of entry – New Zealand Legislation
New Zealand granted their police unlimited powers, and are currently busy demonstrating against the police in other countries. Very Orwellian – and not very intelligent.
Southern Hemisphere countries are just coming into coronavirus season now. Their “amazing success stories” were due to the position of the Sun, not government policy. My Australia trip was cancelled yesterday, because Australia was afraid of me (and everyone else from the Northern Hemisphere.)
The Sun controls the climate, and it also controls coronavirus. But delusional governments believe they control both. In a few weeks, life in Sweden will back to normal, but countries like New Zealand and Australia have no logical path forwards. Their fear will force them to keep their borders closed to most of the world indefinitely.
