Covid 9/11/20 | COVID 19 Information Page

Positive Press on Sweden – https://www.theaustralian.com.au/world/the-times/coronavirus-sweden-vindicated-as-covid-cases-hit-new-low/news-story/a255817a6c28dfb2a4b0e543d40bb541

“Sweden has registered its lowest rate of positive coronavirus tests yet even after its testing regime was expanded to record levels in what one health official said was a vindication of its relatively non-intrusive Covid-19 strategy.

Over the past week the country carried out more than 120,000 tests, of which only 1.3 per cent identified the disease.

At the height of the pandemic the proportion was 19 per cent.”

“In another striking illustration of the progress Sweden has made it is now recording fewer new cases per capita than Norway, which introduced one of Europe’s earliest lockdowns, for the first time since April. In Denmark, another Nordic country that initially seemed to have curbed Covid-19 through the imposition of tight restrictions, the infection rate has also risen much higher than the rate in Sweden.

Denmark and Norway have also largely reopened their borders to Swedes, although some quarantine measures have been put back in place as coronavirus has flared up again in Norway.

At the start of the pandemic the authorities in Stockholm reasoned that the disease would be a long-term challenge and that it would be better to allow the population to develop immunity to it while trying to protect those most at risk.

The government advised people to work from home where they could but left most of the country open, including bars, restaurants and schools for all except the oldest pupils.

It also declined to recommend the use of masks in shops or on trains and buses, although it requires people to keep at least 1.5m apart in public.”

“Some scientists predicted that as many as 180,000 people could die in a country of 10.2 million.

Those estimates proved to be drastically overblown: up to now there have been 5,838 Covid-19 deaths. In per capita terms this is the fifth highest death rate in Europe, behind only Belgium, the UK, Spain and Italy, but it has also fallen substantially since the summer. Only seven people died with the disease in the past week.”

Time will tell – they are seeing some confirmations rising in Sweden now but not as strong as the other countries. In the end should we care if someone get sick as long as they fully recover and do not die? Clearly in the beginning out of caution forecasted high rates of death but to be off by 180/5.8 =31+X is pretty bad. I think the Sweden approach is more about individual accountability and responsibility. They informed and let the people access the risk. Clearly some are very poor at that but they will eventually learn quickly.

Found this site which shows activity in the community with May 22nd being zero basis. Interesting results when compared to covid confirmations https://cai.burbio.com/countyoverview/ On top is the rated CAI level. Per Source “We measure in person community life across libraries, governments, Chambers, and local non-profits. Events read directly off calendars with "virtual" events filtered out. Gets at mobility because it measures which parts of the country are allowing people to go do community events. Updated daily. The deck describes methodology as we have indexes for five subsets of community life at the county level. Our daily reporting provides both the indexes, as well as the actual raw data – 15 libraries in a county, 4 having live events – gets at what ‘normal’ should look like. “

Unfortunate that San Francisco didn’t do a different activity classification than LA. Does point out there is more than social distancing factors in play – perhaps social distancing really doesn’t help in the bigger picture due to those that would cheat will cheat no matter what? Co-dependency/correlation – more community activity because no covid….Given the randomness perhaps it is saying individual actions are more important than govt. regulations – e.g. those choosing to wear mask wearing, going outdoors, less socialization, etc…

In FL Miami-Dade limited activity still confirmations grew – too bad not enough larger counties in FL to compare to

NY doesn’t show high CAI lead to more confirmation

In OH Franklin and Picaway both at 100 CAI – and Franklin being more densed still has much less confirmation per capita. The actions of the individuals is likely stronger than any govt. jurisdiction rule

In TX Harris county is the most discussed but you can see they sit in the middle of the pack in terms of confirmation per capita and the CAI of 60 – being more open would likely not have changed outcome based on the data dispersion. Once again pointing out individual actions likely more of indicator vs. govt. restrictions.

AZ is probably the poster child for needing to restrain activity but there is really no county in AZ to measure up to Maricopa to really confirm that – the graph just indicates more CAI more confirmation but not even close on pop density to compare to.