The graph is instrumental in trying to see the impact of a more patient-centered rational approach…that balances the risks of the lockdown policies and considers the downsides…an approach that is critical for you do not just implement lockdowns and school closures and then when they do not work, you extend them, re-implement them, and harden them. You in effect cause businesses to close, people to lose jobs, and children to degenerate into hopelessness. The result globally and in the US was massive suicides across those three cohorts and we had 6 and 8 year olds hanging themselves. The media hid it because Trump would have looked good in the election campaigning…so they refused to publish the information we were getting from the States, crushing deaths in children and young persons. So Sweden did not close schools and no mask mandates and how many children died from among their 2 million 0-16 year olds? A total of zero (0). Same in Germany, zero.
Sweden was pilloried for their balanced approach and still they did not do it perfect as we wanted which is a strong protection of the elderly while allowing the rest of society as normal lives as possible. They initially did not protect the elderly and did suffer some deaths but they learnt and know how to do this again…God forbid. But they were the closest to the best optimal approach. A reminder, the best is an age-risk stratified approach that is focused on at risk groups mainly, where protections are focused there. You leave the rest of society who are healthy and well and younger to live reasonably normal ‘open’ lives with limited touch by government or closures. Dr. Donald Henderson wrote in 2006 that we do not impose these closures as can be catastrophic.
Can Nordic Sweden and Alpine Austria be compared? I say almost the same nations. I argue yes, not just roughly but directly. Of course the purist will say it is ‘crude’ and I will take that. Their population size is roughly similar in about 10.4 million in Sweden to 9.0 million in Austria). So we can say comparable. Crude. The median age in Sweden is slightly lower than in Austria (41.1 vs. 44.4 years and the Swedish life expectancy is 82.4 vs. 81.6 years). Vaccine rates are almost identical in Sweden and in Austria (72% vs. 70%).
The core difference is Austria has imposed hellish lockdowns and restrictions. Hell is really not the word. And it is crushing. Not to be outdone, Australia is competing for this sordid title on its citizenry. But the question is how do Sweden and Austria compare?
The graph below shows the deaths and that Austria with its harsh punitive lockdowns and now Delta and Omicron variant insanity, have overtaken Sweden in deaths. One can argue now Sweden is in an ‘endemic’ state and out of pandemic state and even more magic as we are learning that influenza has come again. We know that virus to virus may displace each other and that the disappearance of influenza globally was due to being displaced by SARS-CoV-2 for dominance. So with low COVID virus, Sweden now has influenza knocking again and this can be a sign of good things:
big thanks to swprs
I will send this and other recent articles of yours to my NSW Health Minister, just to give him a "boost" of much needed intellectual kicking. Yes, he is my best unrequired pen-pal.