Thread by @janlotvall

1/ Intressant artikel om svenska COVID-strategin ur ett “postmodernistiskt epidemiologiskt perspektiv” av Mats Lindström, Kliniska Vetenskaper, Lunds Universitet bit.ly/32Hz2F7 En genomtäkt reflektion. Här följer valda citat från artikeln (läs hela artikeln via länken):

2/ Spring 2020: “In contrast to other countries, Sweden implemented a less restrictive strategy based on recommendations from the Public Health Agency (PHA: Folkhälsomyndigheten)…”

3/ “On 21 May, 88 new deaths in COVID-19 were reported from Sweden to WHO, 3 in Denmark, 3 in Finland and 1 in Norway. The same day, a total 3831 deaths had been reported in Sweden, 554 in Denmark, 304 in Finland and 234 in Norway (WHO Situation Report 122, 2020).”

4/ “During the first phase of the COVID-19 epidemic, Swedish health policy did not comply with World Health Organization recommendations. Standard Ethics analysts believe that this produced additional risks for the Swedish and European populations. (Standard Ethics, 2020)”

5/ Main questions: “Why did the Swedish political and administrative elite adopt the strategy? Why did initially and for months a majority of the Swedish public accept it?”

6/ “…the aim is to briefly outline the underlying epidemiological thinking and the mentality of post-materialist and postmodern Sweden behind the Swedish strategy.”

7/ “According to Ronald Inglehart’s World Values Survey (WVS), Sweden has during the past decades been the most non-traditional, secularized, post-materialist and postmodern country in the world”

8/ “The postmodern view of science repudiates the modern view that only one objective truth exists to a particular scientific problem, even in medicine and natural sciences”

9/ “epidemiological characteristics of .. Swedish strategy may be discerned: overconfidence in herd immunity (officially not strategy), overconfidence in individual responsibility, overconfidence in evidence-based medicine and neglect to coordinate with other countries and WHO”

10/ Sweden "flatten the curve to avoid stress on health care system", "..other Nordic countries .. had almost no infection curve to flatten, and consequently comparatively little significant stress from the COVID-19 pandemic on the health care system to ease."

11/ “22 Swedish researchers several times criticized what seemed to be herd immunity strategy. The representative of the PHA replied at the official press conference after 2nd article that herd immunity was not a part of the Swedish strategy, thus closing all further discussion”

12/ “The most critical question was almost never asked by the Swedish mass media: What was the point of very loose restrictions and holding even bars, restaurants and skiing venues open if the goal was not to achieve herd immunity?”

13/ "How could a major responsibility be laid 20-39 years old individuals to be modest with visits to restaurants …for keeping social distance.. to hinder the spreading of the contagion, when it was predominantly the old and the frail that died from the spread of the infection?"

14/ "This paradox of the individual responsibility part of the Swedish strategy was almost never thoroughly questioned by Swedish journalists."

15/ “When asked [about] masks and .. other .. issues, the current state epidemiologist often answered that no evidence exists. These answers were based on the concept of evidence-based medicine. (Johan Giesecke interview with CNN 17 April)”

16/ "Evidence-based medicine suggests that the highest level of evidence comes from randomized controlled trials (RCTs). However, this poses a problem when a completely new infectious disease pandemic caused by a previously unknown contagion suddenly occurs.”

17/ "Other considerations such as results from lower level studies with other study designs, based on observational data and even practical experiences, common sense and caution rather than lack of caution not only may but should then be used."

18/ "It seems from this perspective that the repeated reference to evidence-based medicine in rejecting e.g. masks and mouth protection for the public as well as early closures was misplaced."

19/ “Swedish governments have for decades consistently prided themselves for their and the country's international orientation. Swedish governments have also prided their country as a “humanitarian great power” internationally”

20/ “However, in the case of fighting the pandemic this core value seemed to have completely vanished. There was seemingly no essential coordination with the closest neighboring countries Denmark, Finland and Norway”

21/ "The initial Swedish response to the pandemic entailed a strategy that partly neglected the empirical observations and practical experience from East Asia."

22/ "FHM implemented a strategy which indirectly implicated the attainment of herd immunity by the slow spread of the infection with COVID-19, although herd immunity was never an official part of the strategy. "

23/ "The strong emphasis on individual responsibility as a specific trait of the Swedish strategy is closely related the postmodern emphasis on individuality and opposition to authority."

24/ “It may be added that the [swedish] emphasis on individual responsibility, instead of extensive restrictive decisions implemented by the government in an authoritative way, stands in direct opposition to empirical observations and practical experience from East Asia”

25/ En djupare fundering på varför Sverige gjort som man gjort, förklaring i "postmodernism". Jag är inte filosof eller sociolog (inte heller "hobby" sådan), men tycker artikeln är viktig att begrunda. Fler analyser kommer misstänker jag. Följ oss "22" på vetcov19.se