Graham Young wrote in mid April;

"There's a lot of nonsense being talked about Sweden. On a per capita basis its death rate compares well with other European and North American countries https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/total-covid-deaths-per-million?tab=chart&country=SWE+USA+GBR+CHE+ITA+ESP+DEU+FRA+CAN+NOR"

This is what the graph looked like then;

http://ourworldindata.org/grapher/total-covid-deaths-per-million?tab=chart&time=2020-01-31..2020-04-13&country=CAN~FRA~DEU~ITA~NOR~ESP~SWE~CHE~GBR~USA

This is how it looks now;

http://ourworldindata.org/grapher/total-covid-deaths-per-million?tab=chart&country=CAN~FRA~DEU~ITA~NOR~ESP~SWE~CHE~GBR~USA

Sweden's deaths per million have gone from under 100 to over 500. It has outstripped countries like France and is on track to pass even Italy within the next month.

I am hearing a lot less about how the Swedes have managed their response so much more responsibly more than the rest of the world.

But I'm wondering if attitudes on the right have changed on this. Have those who touted Sweden's performance changed their minds or are they still wedded to it?

Dear Steele,

So sad regarding Sweden.

And one can look back in hindsight and think -
"If only".

Sweden took a relaxed approach towards covid-19,
choosing not to institute strict lockdown policies.
With no mandatory quarantine in place their museums,
bars, restaurants, gyms, malls, schools, neighclubs
remained open.

This has had disastrous results with more than 4,500
deaths being reported by June 4.

Anders Tegnell, the state epidemiologist of the
Public Health Agency of Sweden who led Sweden's
controversial COVID-19 response which did not involve
a strict lockdown now says that the country should have
done more to stop the spread of the virus, according to
news reports.

"If we were to run into the same disease knowing
exactly what we know about it today I think we would
end up doing something in between what Sweden did and
what the rest of the world has done".

So stated Anders Tegnell on June 3, according to Reuters.

Perhaps now stricter measures will be implemented to
prevent further deaths from happening. Apparently many
of the deaths have hit people in aged-care facilities.
The most vulnerable.

Sweden's model obviously appealed greatly to the democrats/greens and labour as shown by their tantrum throwing protests on the streets over the last couple of weeks.

runner,

And here the rest of us thought the demonstrations were
in response to the death of Afro-American George
Floyd's murder in Minneapolis May 25th.

Seeing as you raised the topic of the Democrats and
Greens in the US. Here's a joke for you:

Q: How do you starve a right-wing Christian in America?

A: Hide their money in their Bible.

Thanks to Morrison's strict crack-down on the virus, Australia lost far fewer people than was expected. By contrast, Sweden with barely half our population, has lost fifty times as many people. And thanks to Morrison, we can get back to economic activity far more quickly than Sweden.

The Swedish approach seemed to depend on the efficacy of creating some sort of herd immunity, and the devil take the hindmost, the afflicted, the elderly. But if re-infection is possible, if immunity to the virus wears off after barely a year, then all that lack of effort has been pointless.

2.2 million people have been infected in the US and 120,000 have died, so far. Not a great deal of herd immunity there. However the US experience has effectively demonstrated that the virus is real, it's not 'fake' news. And as it spreads out into the more hick areas, those harsh realities will hit more people before they succumb.

And it seems that New York may have to close its borders to infected areas such as Florida.

Long way to go yet.

Joe

Steele, don't expect a response from the forums 'Usual Suspects' anytime soon, they are all over in Tulsa Oklahoma for the Dangerous Doctor Donald Rock N' Roll show. Runner, why are you not there? They have a special reserved area for the miserable happy clappers such as you. I understand the messiah in the form of Bug Ridden Boris from England is going to make a special guest appearance to tell the True Believers how he and DDD have got the virus under control with a dose of Pine-O-Clean and a torch up your arse!