Weeelllll ...
Did Sweden do it right? Sort of a whimpy shut-down (some schools).
Population
10 million,
5907 total deaths (so far),
584 deaths per million,
10,000 cases per million, about 10% towards "herd immunity"
Japan effectively didn't lock down.
Population
127 million,
1638 total deaths (yes, less than 2K),
13 deaths per million, 713 cases per million.
Now the kicker: a recent (not yet peer reviewed) study of a few hundred people working in a company in Tokyo
found an almost
50% seropositive level .... that's 46.8% of the people had asymptomatic Covid and developed antibodies.
Why so high an antibody level? Why so little medical impact?
Possibilities: (a) everybody wears masks .... so if/when you're exposed to Covid, you don't get much of it. Your body can handle a low-level invasion. (b) people tend to follow orders/suggestions about behavior. You don't get crowds shouting that masks are a violation of (mythical) freedoms and rights. (c) they're a "non tactile" culture ... people don't hug, they tend to bow instead of shaking hands (d) they're a quiet culture ... they don't speak loudly and may even deferentially tilt their heads down (see "shouting" above). (e) effective 14 day quarantine process ... not loose like Australia's was.
The study:
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.21.20198796v1.full.pdf
Do i think Sweden "did it right"? Not at all by comparison with Japan.
Or Norway:
5.4 million population,
227 total deaths, 51 per million, 2936 cases per million (DID lockdown)
"The lockdown in Norway has been successful in reducing the pressure on the healthcare system. If Norway would have followed the more lenient Swedish response, the peak number of COVID19 hospitalizations would have been three times higher."
(source)
Or Finland:
5.5 million pop,
350 total deaths, 63 per million, 2292 cases per million (
DID lockdown (mostly))
Or Denmark:
5.8 million pop,
675 total deaths, 116 per million, 5794 cases per million (
DID lockdown,
reimposing)
(i'm using Scandinavian countries to compare similar ethnic bloodstocks to Sweden)
As Japan shows, lockdowns are an unnecessary sledgehammer ... but if the population doesn't follow reasonable behavioral guidelines, it's one of the few easily-imposed public health mechanisms available.
--dick
(a horse's nosebag holds a LOT of popcorn, and is an effective mask)
gbdeclaration.org
