Tag: Sweden was right

In The Race For Immunity, Sweden Leads The Pack

Authored by Mike Whitney via The Unz Review,

In a pandemic, there is no substitute for immunity, because immunity provides the best protection against reinfection. That’s why Sweden set its sights on immunity from the very beginning. They crafted a policy that was designed to protect the old and vulnerable, prevent the public health system from being overwhelmed, and, most important, allow younger, low-risk people to interact freely so they’d contract the virus and develop the antibodies they’d need to fight future infections. That was the plan and it worked like a charm. Now Sweden is just weeks away from achieving herd immunity (which means that future outbreaks will not be nearly as severe) while the lockdown nations– that are just now easing restrictions– face an excruciating uphill slog that may or may not succeed. Bottom line: Sweden analyzed the problem, figured out what to do, and did it. That’s why they are closing in on the finish line while most of the lockdown states are still stuck at Square 1.

As of this writing, none of the other nations have identified immunity as their primary objective which is why their orientation has been wrong from the get-go. You cannot achieve a goal that you have not identified. The current US strategy focuses on stringent containment procedures (shelter-in-place, self-isolation) most of which have little historical or scientific basis. The truth is, the Trump administration responded precipitously when the number of Covid-positive cases began to increase exponentially in the US. That paved the way for a lockdown policy that’s more the result of groupthink and flawed computer models than data-based analysis and nimble strategic planning. And the results speak for themselves. The 8-week lockdown is probably the biggest policy disaster in US history. Millions of jobs have been lost, thousands of small and mid-sized businesses will now face bankruptcy, and the future prospects for an entire generation of young people have been obliterated. The administration could have detonated multiple nuclear bombs in the country and done less damage than they have with their lunatic lockdown policy.

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FOURTH TURNING ACCELERATING TOWARDS CLIMAX

“At some point, America’s short-term Crisis psychology will catch up to the long-term post-Unraveling fundamentals. This might result in a Great Devaluation, a severe drop in the market price of most financial and real assets. This devaluation could be a short but horrific panic, a free-falling price in a market with no buyers. Or it could be a series of downward ratchets linked to political events that sequentially knock the supports out from under the residual popular trust in the system. As assets devalue, trust will further disintegrate, which will cause assets to devalue further, and so on. Every slide in asset prices, employment, and production will give every generation cause to grow more alarmed.” – Strauss & Howe – The Fourth Turning

Economists Predict Great Depression II for US Economy: Fast or V ...

I’ve been writing articles about the Fourth Turning for over a decade and nothing has happened since its tumultuous onset in 2008, with the global financial collapse, created by the Federal Reserve and their Wall Street co-conspirator owners, that has not followed along the path described by Strauss and Howe in their 1997 book – The Fourth Turning.

Like molten lava bursting forth from a long dormant (80 years) volcano, the core elements of this Fourth Turning continue to flow along channels of distress, long ago built by bad decisions, corrupt politicians and the greed of bankers. The molten ingredients of this Crisis have been the central drivers since 2008 and this second major eruption is flowing along the same route. The core elements are debt, civic decay, and global disorder, just as Strauss & Howe anticipated over two decades ago.

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Whitney: Sweden Is The Model

Authored by Mike Whitney via The Unz Review,

At present, there is no vaccine for the coronavirus. That means that one of the two paths to immunity is blocked. The other path is “herd immunity,” in which a critical mass of infection occurs in lower-risk populations that ultimately thwarts transmission.

Herd immunity is the only path that is currently available. Let that sink in for a minute. The only way our species can effectively resist the infection is through the development of specific antibodies or sensitized white blood cells. In other words, the only way we can lick this thing is by the majority of the population getting the infection and thereby developing immunity to future outbreaks.

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Now We Can All Hate Sweden

Guest Post by Skinny

The Authoritarian Left Finds an Enemy in a Long Time Ally

It’s a sad day for the socialist left.  Scandinavia is no longer the socialist paradise of legend.  (It was never a socialist paradise to begin with, but we should never let the facts get in the way of a good legend.)   First it was Norway and visions of Ollie, the sustainable fisherman paddling around the fjords eking out a meager living.  He was dirt poor, but at least he was equal, and isn’t that the point.  The lefto looneys loved Norway and with a suicide rate high enough to make it the envy of the world, what’s not to love.  Then they discovered oil in the North Sea.  Anything but oil.

Why couldn’t they find unicorns or rainbows, or even solar panels, or Tesla batteries for that matter?  Why did it have to be oil?  And even worse, why did Norway have to harvest that oil.  Why couldn’t they just leave it under the seabed for Mother Gaia to drink?    And wealth.  If there is anything a lefty hates more than oil. it’s wealth. And Norway has it.  That gusher of black gold has lifted their per capita GDP to 78k per year ranking them 3rdth in the world.  They are still pretty equal but rich and equal.  Now instead of lutefisk, Ollie munches on caviar while sipping champagne on the deck of his sloop. To the misery loves company left, poor and unequal is preferable to rich and equal.  Just ask Cuba.

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Masks in Sweden: A Followup

Guest Post by Daniel B. Klein

In response to my piece on Masks in Sweden, I received the following fascinating note which compares the attitude in Sweden with that in the United States. I think readers will find this very interesting.

Dr. Klein,

Thank you for your recent article on Sweden’s response to COVID-19. I would just like to add my thoughts to the ongoing public discussion. I am an American living in Stockholm. I have been living here for 17 years and am fluent in Swedish. I am from Northern Virginia.

Regarding this article, I will just point out that the American people have been buffalo’d into a very binary way of thinking – there are only two possibilities when dealing with COVID-19 – complete lockdown or nothing at all. This is also referred to as TINA (There Is No Alternative).

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Why Sweden Has Already Won The Debate On COVID-19 “Lockdown” Policy

Authored by Patrick Henningson via 21stCenturyWire.com,

As Europe and North America continue suffering their steady economic and social decline as a direct result of imposing “lockdown” on their populations, other countries have taken a different approach to dealing with the coronavirus threat. You wouldn’t know it by listening to western politicians or mainstream media stenographers, there are also non-lockdown countries. They are led by Sweden, Iceland, Belarus, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. Surprisingly to some, their results have been as good or better than the lockdown countries, but without having to endure the socio-economic chaos we are now witnessing across the world. For this reason alone, Sweden and others like them, have already won the policy debate, as well as the scientific one too.

Unlike much of the rest of the world who saw fit to unquestioningly follow China’s lead on everything from quarantining, to economic shutdowns, to contact tracing, and PCR mass testing, nonlockdown countries have instead opted for a somewhat lighter touch – preserving their economies and societies, and in doing so avoiding an endless daisy chain of new problems and obstacles deriving directly from the imposition of brutal lockdown policy.

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As We Mull Leaving Lockdown, Is Sweden Model the Way Forward?

Authored by Christina Ramirez, fist published in Real Clear Politics,

In most countries in Europe and North America, governments have imposed lockdowns of their populations and economies. At first glance, this strategy would seem to strike a reasonable, if painful, bargain: pay the price of (hopefully temporary) limits on civil liberties and economic recession (if not depression) to slow virus spread. The price has been very high. In the U.S. alone, the bill has already reached trillions of dollars of lost economic activity and tens of millions out of work. The material pain may go beyond economic insecurity. Many Americans face the real prospect of food shortages.

Sweden, however, has forged its own path. The government is emphasizing voluntary action over government mandates. Elementary schools and businesses, including bars, cafés, restaurants and gyms, are open. The government has urged people to act responsibly and follow social distancing guidelines.

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STUNNING CHARTS: Sweden’s Minimalist Response to #WuhanVirus May Have Worked Amazingly Well

Submitted by Doug Ross

Financial Times has a fascinating study of “excess mortality” in European countries related to the Communist Chinese Virus known as “Covid-19”. The phrase excess mortality refers to the comparison of deaths year-over-year. In short, answering the question “how many deaths are we seeing this year compared to prior years?”

The death toll from coronavirus may be almost 60 per cent higher than reported in official counts, according to an FT analysis of overall fatalities during the pandemic in 14 countries.

Mortality statistics show 122,000 deaths in excess of normal levels across these locations, considerably higher than the 77,000 official Covid-19 deaths reported for the same places and time periods.

Sweden embraced a non-lockdown strategy. You will want to see the charts:

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Everything Has a Cycle – Even the Coronavirus

Guest Post by Martin Armstrong

Professor Yitzhak Ben Israel of Tel Aviv University has plotted the growth rates of new coronavirus infections of the U.S., U.K., Sweden, Italy, Israel, Switzerland, France, Germany, and Spain. What he has revealed is what Socrates had forecast with the peak coming the week of April 6. The professor found that irrespective of whether the country quarantined like Israel, or did not lockdown its citizens like Sweden, the coronavirus still peaked and subsided in the exact same way and time duration.

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THE CURVE BENT ITSELF

Oh my. No national quarantine and businesses remained open. People used common sense to reduce the spread. The WHO and CDC have been rooting for a disaster in Sweden. This factual data, along with the proof from scientific studies underway now on herd immunity, will prove this national lockdown was the dumbest fucking idea in world history.

Graph of Swedish Covid-19 deaths with reporting delay.

Sweden Is Right – The Economy Should Be Left Open

Authored by Mike Whitney via The Unz Review,

Sometimes, the best thing to do, is to do nothing at all. Take Sweden, for example, where the government decided not to shut down the economy, but to take a more thoughtful and balanced approach. Sweden has kept its primary schools, restaurants, shops and gyms open for business even though fewer people are out in public or carrying on as they normally would.

At the same time, the government has kept the Swedish people well-informed so they understand the risks the virus poses to their health and the health of others. This is how the Swedes have minimized their chances of getting the infection while avoiding more extreme measures like shelter-in-place which is de facto house arrest.

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