Hmmm, not exactly neutral journalism is it Ron.
I could go through the entire article but I’ll just take this one quote.
“but at this point we can predict it is almost certain to result in a net failure in terms of death and suffering. As of Oct. 13, Sweden’sper capita death rate is 58.4 per 100,000“
It rather looks like their “certain” prediction may not be turning into reality (see the charts further down the post)
They have of course developed a new method of measuring “suffering”.
I’ll stop there and just deal with the numbers.
This is the set of statistics I’ll use. You can if you wish compare these numbers with numbers from the CDC if you believe the CDC numbers are more accurate. I use this site because of the way the data is arranged.
Setting the columns to give Total cases per million population gives this.
You need to click on the column headers to arrange.
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries. Sweden is ranked at 49. USA 14.
This is total cases. It doesn’t really tell us much. It only becomes useful when one knows the total population, the testing rate and method and the reporting mechanisms. It’s good for emotive headline writing though.
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries
I’ll let you play with the charts but the point I was trying to make in the earlier post is Sweden didn’t go for lockdown and relied heavily on their citizens taking the advice given by the relevant authorities. The UK, USA, Spain and others have tried lockdowns and various other methods of containing the spread of the virus.
If lockdowns etc were effective then one would expect to see Sweden with a higher death rate per million than those countries that have used lockdowns in various forms to contain the virus. The evidence shows a rather different story.
Sweden’s death rate per million is 587 while the UK, USA and Spain all have higher rates, 680, 709 and 767.
Yesterday Sweden reported 9 new deaths while the USA reported 988.
Two days ago Sweden reported 0 new deaths while the USA reported 1,041.
I think it’s an untenable position to state that Sweden’s approach was/is a disaster on these figures regarding deaths.
If one takes into account that Sweden has “suffered” less economic damage and the population isn’t having to endure the problems associated with enforced confinement, whatever those problems may be, “suffering” perhaps, then articles in the vein of that which you have quoted, don’t look to be dealing with reality.
As a final point, Sweden acknowledges that their death rate is unacceptably high and acknowledges that in certain areas they could have performed better. A marked contrast to the current American and UK assertions that their administrations have done a wonderful job.
While this doesn’t include the USA and the charts are complicated to verify, taken on face value, the figures suggest that Sweden’s death rate is lower than many of the countries imposing lockdown measures and is remaining failry steady over the period of time given. The UK’s death rate is rising quite quickly.
https://www.euronews.com/2020/10/30...nfections-in-europe-affecting-covid-19-deaths
My view has always been that we can’t stop this virus killing people. What we can do is protect those most at risk of developing serious complications and possible death.
This would require a change in priorities and a considerable amount of administrative work by those who govern and a major change in the ideals upon which many of these decisions are made. If for example the trillions of money given to businesses and attempt to prop up those who have become unemployed due to the restrictions that money was put into health care, testing and education perhaps we would be in a better state than we now find ourselves in. The ideology of free market capitalism is dead as soon as a government financially supports business. The state is then effectively bankrolling business which is what socialists regimes are condemned for by the free marketers. Currently the UK and the USA are best described as badly run socialist states where freedom of movement is being curtailed and business is in part at least, financed by the state.
That’s my opinion.
Pedal Shad Pedal!!
