3 ms·

Map shows Sweden with what looks like the second-lowest rate of new cases in Europe, just after Spain. Of course, it could just be that the newest wave is slow

• Someone 5y ago
  Differences between countries may be partly attributable to differences in method of counting. Certainly in 2020, Belgium counted “even suspected cases of COVID-19 in the national death toll, regardless of whether the deceased person was tested.”, while others counted only confirmed cases (can be very low if you don’t test much) or ignored deaths in nursing homes (https://www.dw.com/en/belgiums-coronavirus-overcounting-controversy/a-53660975 https://www.dw.com/en/belgiums-coronavirus-overcounting-cont...)
  • rossdavidh 5y ago
    Guaranteed to be at least partly that, I would think, although I was expecting that between western European countries it would be relatively similar. One could look at number of deaths per capita to compensate somewhat, although that leaves the question of whether or not true survival rates could also be different. USA's CDC estimate of the ratio is that the actual number of cases is 4.2*nbr of positive PCR tests. Which means that we only catch about 24% of the actual number of cases. I would think also that countries like Italy which had big waves early have a more serious undercount (for total cases in the pandemic) as compared to countries which first got it somewhat later, when PCR tests were more generally available.
• raxxorrax 5y ago
  They had many deaths at first but I think the Swedish strategy can hold up quite well.