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You don’t have to look very far to see Sweden’s official plan was certainly not herd immunity though community infection. They took a more hands off “do the rig

You don’t have to look very far to see Sweden’s official plan was certainly not herd immunity though community infection. They took a more hands off “do the right thing” approach and I think it’s fair to say that did not fare as well as their Nordic neighbors. Problem is, people in the US didn’t get the memo. They (we) think Sweden just rolled down the windows and put the pedal to the medal. So both the perception and the report from various news outlets here has been pretty shoddy.

stareatgoats 6y ago
> They took a more hands off “do the right thing” approach For the sake of clarity, the "official" strategy was not so much "do the right thing" as a multipronged one: - to make sure the elderly and other groups at risk were adequately protected (something which failed to a large extent, causing the high death toll relative to neighboring countries) - to make sure hospitals and hospital staff were not overwhelmed - to otherwise minimize detrimental effects to the society in general: i.e. not try to eradicate the virus at high cost and great disruption, which means letting it wash through the population. It is the latter bullet which has been interpreted as a "herd immunity" strategy, but the official response to this has been one of plausible deniability: it is only a positive side effect of the main strategy. But internal memos reveal that herd immunity was very much expected and hoped for, with wildly exaggerated estimates of the immunity level galore all through spring. Over summer and well into the fall it seemed that the strategy would be successful, and that Sweden stood to gain a considerable relative advantage through high levels of immunity among "socially active individuals", and would not need to implement lockdowns like comparable countries. Only over the last few weeks has this hope been thoroughly squashed. "The Swedish experiment" which was not based on precaution but more on hopes has definitely failed. It doesn't stop a lot of Swedes from sticking to the official narrative (with a fervor), but it should not fool anyone by now.
- drewcon 6y ago
  Thanks for clarifying. That seems like the right analysis. Good round up here: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/17/swedens-covid-19-strategist-under-fire-over-herd-immunity-emails https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/17/swedens-covid-... Been fascinating and disheartening to watch the elevation of the Swedish approach in the States as one of secret knowledge about “how to do it right” when even a cursory analysis seems to prove otherwise.

stareatgoats 6y ago

> They took a more hands off “do the right thing” approach For the sake of clarity, the "official" strategy was not so much "do the right thing" as a multipronged one: - to make sure the elderly and other groups at risk were adequately protected (something which failed to a large extent, causing the high death toll relative to neighboring countries) - to make sure hospitals and hospital staff were not overwhelmed - to otherwise minimize detrimental effects to the society in general: i.e. not try to eradicate the virus at high cost and great disruption, which means letting it wash through the population. It is the latter bullet which has been interpreted as a "herd immunity" strategy, but the official response to this has been one of plausible deniability: it is only a positive side effect of the main strategy. But internal memos reveal that herd immunity was very much expected and hoped for, with wildly exaggerated estimates of the immunity level galore all through spring. Over summer and well into the fall it seemed that the strategy would be successful, and that Sweden stood to gain a considerable relative advantage through high levels of immunity among "socially active individuals", and would not need to implement lockdowns like comparable countries. Only over the last few weeks has this hope been thoroughly squashed. "The Swedish experiment" which was not based on precaution but more on hopes has definitely failed. It doesn't stop a lot of Swedes from sticking to the official narrative (with a fervor), but it should not fool anyone by now.

drewcon 6y ago
Thanks for clarifying. That seems like the right analysis. Good round up here: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/17/swedens-covid-19-strategist-under-fire-over-herd-immunity-emails https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/17/swedens-covid-... Been fascinating and disheartening to watch the elevation of the Swedish approach in the States as one of secret knowledge about “how to do it right” when even a cursory analysis seems to prove otherwise.