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A Swedish doctor's perspective on Covid

sebastianrushworth.com

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Re: A Swedish doctor's perspective on Covid

#21

Post by hn_check »

This doctor[1] is basically claiming that all of Sweden, or the vast bulk, have had SARS-CoV-2 and are now immune. This goes completely contrary to every medical authority, and is the sort of claim that generally gets something removed as disinformation. Disinformation does well on HN.

Of course you get to the article's slant when it claims that Sweden is "normal" right now, which is an outrageous lie.

Virtually all events are cancelled. Social engagements are non-existent. Streets are empty. Huge percentages of people work from home. Bars and restaurants were closed for a period of time in hot areas, and regardless have operated under a significantly reduced capacity. Sweden's summer school break began at the PEAK of their outbreak, and we'll see what happens when they return in a little over a week.

Sweden's societal reaction to COVID-19 is basically optimal as a general society, and some parts of the US that are "locked down" have much higher social engagement. Either we've redefined normal to be "completely and absolutely unlike the before times", or this guy is just twisting reality pretty generously because he likes the views, particularly among a certain conspiratorial segment of the US population (a Swedish MD whose blog is in English).

[1] An MD who has extraordinarily little expertise in virology or immunology. Yet he discounts immunity tests. This is like a JavaScript developer telling you why Metal is better than Vulkan.

Re: A Swedish doctor's perspective on Covid

#22

Post by spirobel »

refurb wrote: post #12
spirobel wrote: post #5

its time to stop this! I am so proud to see my fellow germans rise up: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=htDrDieOgh0

And this is how it was described in US media. "A large crowd of far-right groups gathered for a "sit-in" at Berlin's iconic Brandenburg Gate on Saturday to protest against the German government's coronavirus restrictions."

The same thing in the german press. the next demonstration will be on the 29. of august. It will be even bigger than the last one. You can fool some of the people some of the time. But you cant fool all the people all of the time.

Re: A Swedish doctor's perspective on Covid

#23

Post by eternalban »

lefstathiou wrote: post #6

There is a political element to covid that is often... ignored.

You win the prize for the understatement of the century.

The ideological clarity of the covid regime is sublime. All sorts of debated matters are decided, by "science", and that is that. Whether by accident or design, the covid regime, the "new normal" that MSM has been educating us about from the very beginning, is a blueprint for a global authoritarian technocracy with its own internal logic, ethics, and mores.

Re: A Swedish doctor's perspective on Covid

#25

Post by gnicholas »

chki wrote: post #7

There are a lot of highly problematic claims in the article. This one stood out to me: >Shutting down completely in order to decrease the total number of deaths only makes sense if you are willing to stay shut down until a vaccine is available. That could take years. No country is willing to wait that long. Actually it might very well just be half a year until we have a vaccine. Multiple candidate vaccines are in pha…

Unfortunately, it appears that a significant chunk of people are not interested in taking the vaccine. [1] If only half of Americans are going to get the vaccine (that figure is from May polling, referenced below), we can't pin all of our hopes on it.

I should note that I'm not saying it's unreasonable of people to be hesitant to take this particular vaccine, given how it is being rushed. Even scientists have said that there is not currently enough evidence of safety/efficacy that they would feel comfortable taking it or giving it to their families. [2]

1: https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/0...

2: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/03/opinion/sunday/coronaviru...

Re: A Swedish doctor's perspective on Covid

#26

Post by refurb »

chki wrote: post #7

There are a lot of highly problematic claims in the article. This one stood out to me: >Shutting down completely in order to decrease the total number of deaths only makes sense if you are willing to stay shut down until a vaccine is available. That could take years. No country is willing to wait that long. Actually it might very well just be half a year until we have a vaccine. Multiple candidate vaccines are in pha…

If Covid has taught me anything, it's to stop assuming a best case scenario.

Even if a vaccine is approved in Q'21, due to manufacturing, supply chain and just general operations issues, it's going to be a while before a large part of the population is vaccinated.

I assume they'll prioritize medical workers and the elderly, then start working through the rest of the population. It wouldn't surprise me if it takes another 6 months to vaccinate less than 50% of the population (which, to be fair, may be enough).

We're probably looking at end of 2021 for enough vaccinations to happen for things to go back to "normal".

That's another year.

Re: A Swedish doctor's perspective on Covid

#27

Post by mcguire »

spirobel wrote: post #11
chki wrote: post #7

There are a lot of highly problematic claims in the article. This one stood out to me: >Shutting down completely in order to decrease the total number of deaths only makes sense if you are willing to stay shut down until a vaccine is available. That could take years. No country is willing to wait that long. Actually it might very well just be half a year until we have a vaccine. Multiple candidate vaccines are in pha…

the german gdp is down over 10 percent. A decade of growth is gone because of this failed policy. The young generation will suffer from this for a long time. Seems like the current politicians dont care about our future.

What would be the cost of not having a "failed policy"? Panic when hospitals start refusing patients?

Re: A Swedish doctor's perspective on Covid

#28

Post by hootbootscoot »

mensetmanusman wrote: post #4

This article would be banned on facebook, because the view that covid still has many millions to kill in the US (sans vaccine) is the currently allowed truth.

it would indeed, as it posits spurious claims and is factually inaccurate, ER doctor or not.

The fact is, over 150k have died in the US due to COVID, and this exceeds the US death toll from any known war, so there's no real minimizing such a figure.

It's likely precisely due to a failure to contain the spread of the causative virus, precisely due to waffling around lockdown.

Re: A Swedish doctor's perspective on Covid

#29

Post by chki »

spirobel wrote: post #11
chki wrote: post #7

There are a lot of highly problematic claims in the article. This one stood out to me: >Shutting down completely in order to decrease the total number of deaths only makes sense if you are willing to stay shut down until a vaccine is available. That could take years. No country is willing to wait that long. Actually it might very well just be half a year until we have a vaccine. Multiple candidate vaccines are in pha…

the german gdp is down over 10 percent. A decade of growth is gone because of this failed policy. The young generation will suffer from this for a long time. Seems like the current politicians dont care about our future.

>the german gdp is down over 10 percent. A decade of growth is gone because of this failed policy.

The swedish GDP is down 9% despite them (according to the article which is misrepresenting a lot of things) not locking down at all. Even if Germany took a completely different approach (which would have led to a New York Style situation in the whole country) there would basically not be a difference in gdp numbers.

Re: A Swedish doctor's perspective on Covid

#30

Post by gnicholas »

matz1 wrote: post #17
gnicholas wrote: post #9

Cynical perspective: Trump doesn't want to reopen too fast because it won't be clear by the election (October, when mail-in voting happens) that this was a good strategy. Democrats don't want to reopen too fast because keeping the economy shut down is bad for Trump's reelection chances. Too cynical? Perhaps. But I do think that perspectives like the author's are dismissed too quickly because neither 'side' sees a way…

Sadly what you said make sense. If its true then its likely this will be over after the election.

If that happens, and in the event that Trump loses, he will forever blame his loss on the media and the Democrats.
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