Sweden and Avoidance of COVID Lockdown Confounds WHO

The World Health Organization and Sweden have been disputing the effectiveness of the Swedish strategy to avoid social lockdown in the face of the COVID pandemic. While initially WHO maintained a high degree of skepticism and alarm for Sweden's approach, it appears that new data is becoming available that is forcing WHO to rethink their stance, and soften their criticism for Sweden's handling of the situation.

Anders Tegnell, one of Sweden's foremost epidemiologists, has been embroiled in a public dispute with members of WHO. Tegnell has been a chief architect of Sweden's anti-lockdown COVID response, which has not endeared him with his counterparts among WHO, because of WHO's insistence that countries must heavily clamp down on all social interaction, i.e. lockdown.

On Friday, Tegnell won a very public victory against the WHO, after lambasting the organization for making a “total mistake.” The WHO had initially placed Sweden in a group of 11 countries where it said “accelerated transmission has led to very significant resurgence that, if left unchecked, will push health systems to the brink.”

But the WHO then amended its assessment, and said Swedish contagion rates are in fact “stable.”It linked the high number of cases to an increase in testing.

This strategy hasn't been without cost for Sweden, because as expected, their infection and mortality rates among vulnerable segments of the population have skyrocketed, as one might expect by not quarantining the general population and locking all aspects of society down.

However, observers are now lauding Sweden's strategy as being a more reasonable approach than other nations, balancing the need for awareness and social distancing against the desire to not completely constrict economic and public activity to the point of social asphyxiation.

William Hanage, associate professor of epidemiology at Harvard’s School of Public Health in Boston, said “Sweden’s policy is unusual in that it took a much less stringent approach to preventing transmission, but interestingly it implemented those measures at a very early stage in the pandemic, before large amounts of community spread had occurred.”

“Sweden’s approach may be sustainable in ways other countries’ have not proven to be,” according to Hanage. “It should be noted that lockdowns are a response to an imminent surge into health care, with the goal of stopping as many transmission chains as quickly as possible. The full accounting will only be possible after the pandemic.”

This story seems interesting to me in the context of the current 'second guessing' we have occurring in the US about premature re-opening in certain states.

After further review in Sweden, which nearly avoided COVID-induced lockdown altogether, it turned out that increases in the numbers of cases over time was linked to increased frequency/coverage of TESTING, not actual increases in infection rates.

Is this phenomenon (statistical inflation of cases because more people are actually being tested than when the outbreak first started) taking place now in the US as well? Or is there some inherent difference between how Sweden managed the crisis and how the US managed it, such that the Swedes could remain 'open for business' without massive rates of infections? Or are there more obvious explanations in play, for example smaller population size and lower population density between Sweden and the US.

After further review in Sweden, which nearly avoided COVID-induced lockdown altogether, it turned out that increases in the numbers of cases over time was linked to increased frequency/coverage of TESTING, not actual increases in infection rates.

Been saying this since the very beginning. If they tested everyone, Covid19 would be just as deadly as the flu if not a little safer. I actually know people that died from the flu tied with other complications, but can't even name a person I know that has gotten Covid19. I think the biggest issue is politicians are scared to admit it after killing our jobs and economies.

This is part of what people don't understand about 'flatten the curve'. There are the same number of people with covid in a flattened vs. not flattened curve, just that they are spread out over time in the flattened.

It is just that you run some risk of other deaths due to overwhelmed health care systems in some cases/cities/countries if nothing was done. In Sweden, they deemed that they could handle the load and their deaths per day and hospitalizations per day are showing it to be successful without locking everyone down and breaking their economy. school systems etc.

Georgia in the US is another example. They literally said the governor would have genocide on his hands. That was the beginning of May.

Another thing people must understand is that there IS an acceptable number of daily deaths. We cannot go on locked up until it is "gone" or no more cases. For example, there are 100-200 deaths from the flu every day in the US averaged throughout the year (higher during flu season, lower in the summer).


What is the end game?

a reply to: SleeperHasAwakened

What many of the fearful are too ignorant to understand is there is no stopping a virus that spread to 186 countries in a matter of months.

There was never any way to eliminate the threat from the CCP virus. There are only a few ways to eliminate the threat. A cure, a vaccine or herd immunity.

The number of deaths by suicide, drug and alcohol abuse and domestic violence have skyrocketed. The lockdowns will go down as worse than the disease itself. We do not have a support system in place to sustain a lockdown without major negative consequences to the life and prosperity of the middle and lower classes.

I congratulate Sweden for being one of the only countries to take a logical approach from the beginning.

People die of new diseases, it’s an unfortunate fact of life. Some slower spreading diseases may be able to be contained and eliminated. But anything spreading as fast as the CCP virus is going to make it’s way through the population regardless of what we do.

A lot of stuff confounds WHO.
along with the other agencies.
WHAT, WHEN, and WHY

originally posted by: Halfswede
This is part of what people don't understand about 'flatten the curve'. There are the same number of people with covid in a flattened vs. not flattened curve, just that they are spread out over time in the flattened.

It is just that you run some risk of other deaths due to overwhelmed health care systems in some cases/cities/countries if nothing was done. In Sweden, they deemed that they could handle the load and their deaths per day and hospitalizations per day are showing it to be successful without locking everyone down and breaking their economy. school systems etc.

Georgia in the US is another example. They literally said the governor would have genocide on his hands. That was the beginning of May.

You are right. The only thing we accomplished was "pausing" the impact mainly because they knew we were screwed on supplies and had no way to get them without pausing the inevitable.

A full mask strategy without economic lockdown would have worked much better.

a reply to: SleeperHasAwakened

This is an organized world wide culling of sick and weak humans.

a reply to: DeathSlayer

Let me know when Corona deaths reach 3 million worldwide, which is the regular average annual mortality for respiratory illnesses to begin with. When it hits three million, then we can point to the numbers and be like"oh yea this happens every year, except this year since the cabal is in retreat were going to order all the world's media under an already consolidated ownership to saturate all internet and cable subscriber's with the normal numbers and it should work at freaking them out, because the regular person does not actually research facts and is not aware that this is literally the normal infection and fatality rate for respiratory illnesses "

Good thing Iraq had WMD's like all the experts , media and intelligence told us, otherwise we may have felt a bit deceived or something about the entire war. It's not as if the literal owners of the world and industries all met in 2019 in secret meeting while discussing the weaponization of media or anything.

a reply to: Isurrender73

UK Govt PLC has refused to release figures for UK deaths from suicide since lockdown began. Perhaps they are concerned those so inclined would measure the figures against suicides during other periods.

a reply to: teapot

Almost impossible to find death rates for influenza or RSV in my area. I can find covid deaths in seconds. Once I finally found the data I saw a weird anomaly. Almost all cases of death from flu or RSV stopped, or dropped sharply back in March, yet the death rate for covid stayed flat. Almost like they were salting their data for covid with their cases of influenza and RSV.

I'll just leave this here.

www.bitchute.com...

originally posted by: KnoxMSP
a reply to: teapot

Almost impossible to find death rates for influenza or RSV in my area. I can find covid deaths in seconds. Once I finally found the data I saw a weird anomaly. Almost all cases of death from flu or RSV stopped, or dropped sharply back in March, yet the death rate for covid stayed flat. Almost like they were salting their data for covid with their cases of influenza and RSV.

We should keep in mind the reported inaccuracy of tests for COVID, particularly at the pandemic's start. Remember those reports about faulty test kits, false negatives, false positives, and some folks whose test results would seemingly fluctuate after numerous tests?

I could see a scenario where the flu and RSV cases were being missreported as COVID (i.e. false positives).

a reply to: SleeperHasAwakened
I can both sides to it. The lockdown was pointless pretty much across the board and did economic destruction that was completely unjustified. But the social distancing and mask wearing, while not very effective, did serve a purpose in slowing down the spread marginally so as not to overwhelm health care facilities. Hand washing was key but that has been known to stop the flu and other illnesses so that wa snothing new. Most people got it and most people, over 99% recovered. Most cases were not serious with deaths and serious cases being almost all the elderly or those with other medical conditions. But everybody either got it or will get it so now its spreading to areas not hit yet while hard hit areas are seeing steady declines in case counts even with increased testing. And the mortality rate is drastically plunging. Herd immunity was the key all along.

The only thing I disagree with in the OP is that protecting the vulnerable necessitated lockdowns. No, not at all. Sweden DID fail to protect those in nursing homes, where the majority of deaths occurred, but it only needed to lock THEM down, and their staff, not everyone else.

originally posted by: Middleoftheroad

After further review in Sweden, which nearly avoided COVID-induced lockdown altogether, it turned out that increases in the numbers of cases over time was linked to increased frequency/coverage of TESTING, not actual increases in infection rates.

Been saying this since the very beginning. If they tested everyone, Covid19 would be just as deadly as the flu if not a little safer. I actually know people that died from the flu tied with other complications, but can't even name a person I know that has gotten Covid19. I think the biggest issue is politicians are scared to admit it after killing our jobs and economies.

Couldn't agree more. The politicians don't want egg on their faces.

originally posted by: Isurrender73
a reply to: SleeperHasAwakened

What many of the fearful are too ignorant to understand is there is no stopping a virus that spread to 186 countries in a matter of months.

There was never any way to eliminate the threat from the CCP virus. There are only a few ways to eliminate the threat. A cure, a vaccine or herd immunity.

The number of deaths by suicide, drug and alcohol abuse and domestic violence have skyrocketed. The lockdowns will go down as worse than the disease itself. We do not have a support system in place to sustain a lockdown without major negative consequences to the life and prosperity of the middle and lower classes.

I congratulate Sweden for being one of the only countries to take a logical approach from the beginning.

People die of new diseases, it’s an unfortunate fact of life. Some slower spreading diseases may be able to be contained and eliminated. But anything spreading as fast as the CCP virus is going to make it’s way through the population regardless of what we do.

Exactly this! What I've been saying from the start.

a reply to: Flesh699

Not sure I agree with everything Kaufman says, but I he makes a lot of sense.

Or is there some inherent difference between how Sweden managed the crisis and how the US managed it

The U.S. has 50 states that create problems that are further complicated by politics.

Is Sweden divided into states, districts, and localities that are able to make their own decisions about how, when, and what to do to? No. They are a unitary state.

As long as Democrats in the U.S. can abuse the virus for political rhetoric, we will have "management" issues.

From Swiss Policy Research - Facts about Covid-19

1. According to the latest immunological and serological studies, the overall lethality of Covid-19 (IFR) is about 0.1% and thus in the range of a strong seasonal influenza (flu).

2. In countries like the US, the UK, and also Sweden (without a lockdown), overall mortality since the beginning of the year is in the range of a strong influenza season; in countries like Germany, Austria and Switzerland, overall mortality is in the range of a mild influenza season.

3. Even in global “hotspots”, the risk of death for the general population of school and working age is typically in the range of a daily car ride to work. The risk was initially overestimated because many people with only mild or no symptoms were not taken into account.

4. Up to 80% of all test-positive persons remain symptom-free. Even among 70-79 year olds, about 60% remain symptom-free. Over 95% of all persons develop at most moderate symptoms.
...
8. Up to 30% of all additional deaths may have been caused not by Covid19, but by the effects of the lockdown, panic and fear. For example, the treatment of heart attacks and strokes decreased by up to 60% because many patients no longer dared to go to hospital.
...
17. There is also no scientific evidence for the effectiveness of face masks in healthy or asymptomatic individuals. On the contrary, experts warn that such masks interfere with normal breathing and may become “germ carriers”. Leading doctors called them a “media hype” and “ridiculous”.
....
30.

Long frequently updated page with some enlightening facts & studies you'll never hear in msm.

"Children Have 0.00% Chance of Dying from COVID but are Harmed for Life by Social Distancing, Which has its Roots in CIA Torture Techniques"

California Civil Rights Attorney Leigh Dundas published a video on Facebook this week to show the devastating consequences of isolating children and forcing them to practice “social distancing” at places like school.

Here are some lesser known facts about social distancing and isolation:

• It was developed 70 years ago by the CIA to break down enemies of state.

• It is the equivalent of smoking 15 cigarettes a day AND being an alcoholic.

• It doubles the risk of death, and destroys the part of the brain responsible for learning.

She pointed out that according to the statistics and the CDC:

• A child’s risk of dying from COVID is 0.0%, per the CDC.

• No child has passed on COVID to a family member or third party (they do not transmit).

Link - very long research summary article with many sourced references.