Post by Admin on Aug 22, 2020 7:23:04 GMT
Sweden's coronavirus suppression strategy was an experiment that few other nations dared champion.
The country's approach has been more liberal than the lockdowns imposed in neighbouring countries or, indeed, around the world.
Instead of mandated curfews and shutdowns, Sweden chose to keep most schools and businesses open throughout the COVID-19 outbreak.
But the model has come under fire, particularly in recent days after email exchanges of the country's chief epidemiologist at the beginning of the pandemic came to light.
The emails, obtained by Swedish journalists under freedom of information laws, showed that in March, Anders Tegnell appeared to ask whether a higher death rate among older people might be acceptable if it led to faster herd immunity.
"One point would be to keep schools open to reach herd immunity faster," Dr Tegnell wrote.
He has famously said that although the death rate was too high, "on the whole [Sweden] would go down the same route" if it had its time again.
Sweden's death rate is among the worst in the world, although it remains lower than some European countries which had imposed much harsher measures, including Italy, Britain and Spain.
More than 5,700 Swedes have died since the start of the year and health authorities have since acknowledged there were clear failings in the preparedness of aged-care homes, just as we're seeing in Australia.
The Swedish Government has ordered an inquiry into what went wrong in aged care homes, where thousands died after being exposed to COVID-19.
But cases and deaths have fallen dramatically since a surge in infections earlier this year, professor of infectious disease epidemiology at Stockholm's Karolinska Institute Joakim Dillner said.
"The reproductive rate of the infection declined drastically as a result of these non-compulsory measures," he said.
The country's approach has been more liberal than the lockdowns imposed in neighbouring countries or, indeed, around the world.
Instead of mandated curfews and shutdowns, Sweden chose to keep most schools and businesses open throughout the COVID-19 outbreak.
But the model has come under fire, particularly in recent days after email exchanges of the country's chief epidemiologist at the beginning of the pandemic came to light.
The emails, obtained by Swedish journalists under freedom of information laws, showed that in March, Anders Tegnell appeared to ask whether a higher death rate among older people might be acceptable if it led to faster herd immunity.
"One point would be to keep schools open to reach herd immunity faster," Dr Tegnell wrote.
He has famously said that although the death rate was too high, "on the whole [Sweden] would go down the same route" if it had its time again.
Sweden's death rate is among the worst in the world, although it remains lower than some European countries which had imposed much harsher measures, including Italy, Britain and Spain.
More than 5,700 Swedes have died since the start of the year and health authorities have since acknowledged there were clear failings in the preparedness of aged-care homes, just as we're seeing in Australia.
The Swedish Government has ordered an inquiry into what went wrong in aged care homes, where thousands died after being exposed to COVID-19.
But cases and deaths have fallen dramatically since a surge in infections earlier this year, professor of infectious disease epidemiology at Stockholm's Karolinska Institute Joakim Dillner said.
"The reproductive rate of the infection declined drastically as a result of these non-compulsory measures," he said.