Sept 2020. Johan Giesecke tells Ireland's Special Committee on Covid-19 Response that Sweden's strategy "could be effective in other countries as well".
"I believe Ireland should allow a controlled spread of the disease among people below 60 years."
🧵
oireachtas.ie/en/debates/deb…
Giesecke asserted there had been "no difference at all" between the number of infected children in Sweden, which kept primary schools open, and Finland, which had distance learning.
He left out that Sweden didn't test children.
The comparison that Giesecke referred to. Because Sweden didn't test children, it looked like Finland had a higher incidence among children despite remote learning and a lockdown. Yet it was in Sweden where children ended up in intensive care.
folkhalsomyndigheten.se/contentassets/…
Here is a thread about Sweden not testing schoolchildren and still declaring COVID hadn't spread in Swedish schools, despite having gathered no data.
Johan Giesecke claimed Sweden "never had herd immunity as a goal" but had reached herd immunity as a by-product by allowing spread in the population.
Why was the spread allowed if herd immunity was not the goal? Why did he recommend the same for Ireland?
Like Swedish health authorities have done during the whole pandemic, Johan Giesecke recommended against masks while the other experts talked about promoting mask wearing.
After recommending his "controlled spread" to the parliamentary committee, Johan Giesecke had an interview with RTÉ Radio 1. In the interview, he soon admitted he doesn't know much about Ireland and that applying Sweden's model could be a mistake. rte.ie/radio/radio1/c…
More similar cases of Sweden marketing its pandemic approach:
Share this Scrolly Tale with your friends.
A Scrolly Tale is a new way to read Twitter threads with a more visually immersive experience.
Discover more beautiful Scrolly Tales like this.