{"id":29440,"date":"2020-09-07T18:41:32","date_gmt":"2020-09-07T08:41:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/?p=29440"},"modified":"2020-09-07T18:41:32","modified_gmt":"2020-09-07T08:41:32","slug":"after-months-of-condemnation-for-no-lockdown-swedens-covid-deaths-drop-to-near-zero","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/?p=29440","title":{"rendered":"After months of condemnation for no lockdown, Sweden\u2019s COVID deaths drop to near-zero"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"810\" height=\"500\" src=\"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Sweden_Covid_Curve_202008010.png\" alt=\"Sweden Covid Curve\" class=\"wp-image-29441\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Sweden_Covid_Curve_202008010.png 810w, https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Sweden_Covid_Curve_202008010-300x185.png 300w, https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Sweden_Covid_Curve_202008010-768x474.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 767px) 89vw, (max-width: 1000px) 54vw, (max-width: 1071px) 543px, 580px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>As heated debate continues over the emergency measures taken around the world to limit the spread of COVID-19, new data suggest Sweden\u2019s oft-derided approach of not locking down may have paid off in the long run.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The country of 10 million people has seen a total of 82,972 infections and 5,766 deaths. Unlike many nations, it never shut down its schools or economy and did not restrict individual freedoms to nearly the degree seen in the United States and much of Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sweden\u2019s leaders faced a steady drumbeat of international condemnation as deaths curved upward from April through June, though the curve flattened in July. Daily deaths fell to the low thirties in mid June, and have been in single digits since July 20.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In April, Swedish epidemiologist Anders Tegnell explained to Nature magazine that Sweden started from the understanding that COVID-19 \u201cis not a disease that can be stopped or eradicated\u2026until a working vaccine is produced,\u201d and that widespread lockdowns would be incompatible with Swedish laws, which \u201care mostly based on voluntary measures \u2014 on individual responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cClosedown, lockdown, closing borders \u2014 nothing has a historical scientific basis, in my view,\u201d Tegnell said. \u201cWe have looked at a number of European Union countries to see whether they have published any analysis of the effects of these measures before they were started, and we saw almost none.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Notably, Tegnell also acknowledged that Sweden \u201cunderestimated the issues at care homes, and how the measures would be applied. We should have controlled this more thoroughly.\u201d This was the same error infamously made in New York, suggesting that Sweden\u2019s overall early outlook was disproportionately impacted by nursing home deaths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.lifesitenews.com\/news\/after-months-of-condemnation-swedens-covid-deaths-drop-to-near-zero\">https:\/\/www.lifesitenews.com\/news\/after-months-of-condemnation-swedens-covid-deaths-drop-to-near-zero<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As heated debate continues over the emergency measures taken around the world to limit the spread of COVID-19, new data suggest Sweden\u2019s oft-derided approach of not locking down may have paid off in the long run. The country of 10 million people has seen a total of 82,972 infections and 5,766 deaths. Unlike many nations, &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/?p=29440\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;After months of condemnation for no lockdown, Sweden\u2019s COVID deaths drop to near-zero&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-interest","category-health-tips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29440"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29440\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29442,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29440\/revisions\/29442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}