Too many died, says man behind Swedens virus plan
Source: BBC
Sweden's controversial decision not to impose a strict lockdown in response to the Covid-19 pandemic led to too many deaths, the man behind the policy, Anders Tegnell, has acknowledged. Sweden has seen a far higher mortality rate than its nearest neighbours and its nationals are being barred from crossing their borders.
Dr Tegnell told Swedish radio more should have been done early on. "There is quite obviously a potential for improvement in what we have done." Sweden has counted 4,542 deaths and 40,803 infections in a population of 10 million, while Denmark, Norway and Finland have imposed lockdowns and seen far lower rates. Denmark has seen 580 deaths, Norway has had 237 deaths and Finland 321. Sweden reported a further 74 deaths on Wednesday.
Dr Tegnell, who is Sweden's state epidemiologist and in charge of the country's response to Covid-19, has told Swedish public radio: "If we were to encounter the same disease again, knowing exactly what we know about it today, I think we would settle on doing something in between what Sweden did and what the rest of the world has done." When asked if too many people had died too soon, Dr Tegnell said, "Yes, absolutely." While Sweden's approach had been to increase its response step by step, other countries had imposed immediate lockdowns and gradually reopened.
Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-52903717
still_one
(92,204 posts)with this
Proud Liberal Dem
(24,412 posts)For being a seemingly more progressive European country, their decision to try to just let it burn through with little or no public health restrictions is sort of puzzling. However, it's not hard to understand why it seems appealing to right-wingers seeking "freedumb". It's perhaps the only instance I can think of where right-wingers actually want the US to be like a European country, which is hella revealing
still_one
(92,204 posts)Proud Liberal Dem
(24,412 posts)Most people here are rightly horrified by such a wantonly careless decision.
still_one
(92,204 posts)ansible
(1,718 posts)Proud Liberal Dem
(24,412 posts)This virus is killing people of all ages, not just "old people"
lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)Asshole, you DID know exactly what you know today. Every responsible epidemiologist in the world warned you.
Proud Liberal Dem
(24,412 posts)SunSeeker
(51,559 posts)Didn't he see the videos coming out of China in January showing choas as huge desperate crowds besieged Wuhan hospitals?
SkyDaddy7
(6,045 posts)That kind of BS pisses me off! He knew back then but thought he knew BETTER!! ...Like you said, "ASSHOLE!"
Blues Heron
(5,936 posts)you need to have your head examined.
Pantagruel
(2,580 posts)At least the dead Swedes tragically provide the rest of the world a lesson on dealing with a a pandemic.Hopefully, it's lesson learned for the next inevitable outbreak.
Roc2020
(1,616 posts)and got snake eyes and more people died than should have.
Initech
(100,079 posts)Every scenario was pretty much a gamble, whether it was the economy or whether it was people's lives. This is something we have never seen before.
cos dem
(903 posts)UK figured out early on this approach was a bad idea.
SunSeeker
(51,559 posts)They controlled the outbreak without shutting down their economy, without closing factories and restaurants. How? Mass testing, contacting tracing and targeted quarantining of the ill. And universal mask wearing. It's not rocket science. https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/03/26/821688981/how-south-korea-reigned-in-the-outbreak-without-shutting-everything-down Not only did their testing program save their economy, it saved lives. They've lost only 273 people, we've lost 109,000, and we're still losing thousands every few days. https://www.realclearpolitics.com/coronavirus/ Granted we have 6.5 times the population of South Korea, but if we had done what they did, we'd have lost only about 6.5×273 or about 1,775 people, and our economy would not be in tatters.
I am so fucking sick of hearing that this was inevitable, especially on a progressive board.
Initech
(100,079 posts)And then this shithead virus wouldn't be a thing anymore. But our biggest problem is that half of the country won't listen to the other half, and wants us dead. No matter how much we try to convince them that this is the right thing to do.
SunSeeker
(51,559 posts)This was not inevitable. Trump did this to us.
Initech
(100,079 posts)And Fox News too, let's not forget how much they tried to downplay the severity of the threat.
SunSeeker
(51,559 posts)At the beginning when he called it a hoax, so did they. Then for a brief spell in late March/early April when he called it a pandemic and was on TV every day doing press conferences, they immediately got on board with that and took it seriously. But then he switched to wanting to open everything up and downplayed the risk again, and they immediately switched gears, mimicking his "Liberate Michigan" bullshit. They are his PR department.
LittleGirl
(8,287 posts)Exactly that. Thx
Hiawatha Pete
(1,798 posts)Nice, sanitized response.
So how exactly do you propose to make the thousands dead [as a result of Sweden's policy] come back to life, Mr Tegnell?
SunSeeker
(51,559 posts)C Moon
(12,213 posts)That's terrible. Those were probably mostly elderly and others with existing health problems.
They suffered on ventilators and died (and others will never be the same) while the government experimented.
ProfessorGAC
(65,057 posts)And we were late to mitigate. If we did earlier what we finally did, our deaths would be 60% of what they are.
Their plan is not "sort of OK". It's a dismal failure.
IronLionZion
(45,447 posts)USA now has 108,599 deaths on Worldometers
Karadeniz
(22,526 posts)Few late night calls with Putin, like our leader!