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Sweden, like the UK and possibly the Netherlands has chosen to let the disease spread among the population to achieve what they call "herd immunity" [1 - Swedis

Sweden, like the UK and possibly the Netherlands has chosen to let the disease spread among the population to achieve what they call "herd immunity" [1 - Swedish]. There might be some truth to the herd immunity thought, the problem is they don't have any control over the speed at which the infection will spread through society. Eventually everyone who can be infected will get infected no matter what is done so that herd immunity will also occur in a situation where the spread is limited by isolation as is done in most other countries. In other words, herd immunity is a given outcome of all approaches and as such does not need to be stated as a goal. The goal should be to limit the load on the health care system so as to limit the number of people who will die in the wake of reverse triage in an overloaded system. In short, the stated goal will always be achieved so it is a variable which can be struck from the equation. Having this as a goal is the equivalent of not having any goal at all. [1] https://www.expressen.se/nyheter/strategin-lat-manga-smittas-i-lagom-takt/ https://www.expressen.se/nyheter/strategin-lat-manga-smittas...

makomk 7y ago
This isn't exactly the stated goal of the UK, so much as something our government has concluded is the inevitable outcome no matter what they do. The goal is the one you suggest - to limit the load on the healthcare system and the number of people who die as a result.
lawn 7y ago
Note that it's only the opinion of someone that Sweden is following the "herd immunity" strategy, and it's denied by several officials. Sweden hasn't closed down schools etc like other countries have done so it's fair to argue that it's being done in practice, but it doesn't seem to be a conscious decision.
- Yetanfou 7y ago
  Statsepidemiolog Anders Tegnell säger att resonemanget om flockimmunitet ”delvis” stämmer, men att det inte är myndighetens strategi. – Vårt huvudsyfte nu är att få smittspridningen att gå så långsamt som möjligt. ...which translates to... State epidemiologist Anders Tegnell says the reasoning around herd immunity is partly correct but that it is not the organisation's strategy - our main goal now is to get the infection to spread as slow as possible ...but the Swedish government is not actually doing much to limit the spread of the disease other than telling people who show symptoms to stay at home. By now it has mostly been proven that infected people spread the infection for a few days before they show symptoms and the fact that children can be and often seem to be asymptomatic carriers the spread will be rapid and result in a large number of people in need of medical care. The Swedish health care system was already overloaded before the pandemic so it will not be able to handle a large number of patients in need of critical care. The same scenario is now playing out in Italy so this should not come as a surprise.

makomk 7y ago

This isn't exactly the stated goal of the UK, so much as something our government has concluded is the inevitable outcome no matter what they do. The goal is the one you suggest - to limit the load on the healthcare system and the number of people who die as a result.

lawn 7y ago

Note that it's only the opinion of someone that Sweden is following the "herd immunity" strategy, and it's denied by several officials. Sweden hasn't closed down schools etc like other countries have done so it's fair to argue that it's being done in practice, but it doesn't seem to be a conscious decision.

Yetanfou 7y ago
Statsepidemiolog Anders Tegnell säger att resonemanget om flockimmunitet ”delvis” stämmer, men att det inte är myndighetens strategi. – Vårt huvudsyfte nu är att få smittspridningen att gå så långsamt som möjligt. ...which translates to... State epidemiologist Anders Tegnell says the reasoning around herd immunity is partly correct but that it is not the organisation's strategy - our main goal now is to get the infection to spread as slow as possible ...but the Swedish government is not actually doing much to limit the spread of the disease other than telling people who show symptoms to stay at home. By now it has mostly been proven that infected people spread the infection for a few days before they show symptoms and the fact that children can be and often seem to be asymptomatic carriers the spread will be rapid and result in a large number of people in need of medical care. The Swedish health care system was already overloaded before the pandemic so it will not be able to handle a large number of patients in need of critical care. The same scenario is now playing out in Italy so this should not come as a surprise.