During late summer a widespread hope bordering on complacency occurred among the Swedish health officials as the number of cases and deaths receded: there was a

During late summer a widespread hope bordering on complacency occurred among the Swedish health officials as the number of cases and deaths receded: there was a chance that the (non-mentionable) herd immunity strategy was going to pay off. Various mathematical models were proposed to show that only a fraction of the normal > 60-70% immunity should be enough to suppress the virus. No second wave was probable. That hope spilled over into conviction among various sectors that demanded restrictions be lifted. The need to be right was greater than attention to the numbers coming in. What is happening right now is that the number of deaths are rising rapidly, the number of people in intensive care have exploded over the last two weeks [0], which means the number of deaths will also explode over the next few weeks. The Swedish experiment that chose not to aggressively push back the virus but instead to let it wash through the community while protecting the elderly is starting to look like a failure, and the people responsible are starting to look markedly stressed. The economy is healthy though, comparatively (and for the time being). [0] https://portal.icuregswe.org/siri/report/corona.covid-dagligen https://portal.icuregswe.org/siri/report/corona.covid-daglig...