π¦In a surprising turn of events, despite the relaxation of restrictions to decrease the spread of a serious virus, the virus continues to spread with exponential growth in Sweden. π
Nobody could possibly have predicted this, especially given what happened last year.π¦
π¦Oddly, despite cases increasing exponentially, hospitalisations are *also increasing*. πNone of this, obviously, makes any sense.π¦
π¦Fortunately, Swedish schools open this week for compulsory in-person teaching with most having no ventilation (windows don't open), no HEPA filters or CO2 monitors, and definitely no masks. These lack of measures should help prevent the spread of infection in children.π¦
π¦**Most importantly**, if you take the Swedish Public Health Authorities data from 2 weeks ago, completely ignore the limited testing, and compare it to current data from other Nordic countries, Sweden is doing the best! Hurrah!π¦
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Sweden's leading newspaper, @dagensnyheter, booked an interview with a Swede living in New Zealand. After she old them she supported the NZ strategy, they cancelled the interview, instead going with an "anti-lockdown" Swede.
They failed to even report that nearly 9 in 10 New Zealanders support their Zero Covid approach, and only added some other Swedess in NZ views after many of them wrote to protest.
Perspective -
Sweden 14692* reported Covid-19 deaths
New Zealand 27 reported Covid-19 deaths
* Sweden has not reported any new Covid deaths since Tuesday due to a "system update"
First of all, after 18 freaking months they apparently don't understand that Covid-19 is the disease state. The paper they cite is talking about infection with sars-cov-2. If you don't get sick, you don't have Covid-19, you're just infected with the virus >
But most seriously, because only 0.2% of a certain group of people (Covid symptom study) got infected following vaccination, they conclude the risk of infection is only 0.2%!
>
Sweden's first Covid press conference in 6 weeks today. When asked if they've estimated how many kids are going to be infected in schools, the Health Authority says they've not.
This paper looked at risk of hospitalisation, ICU admission, and mortality by age.
Note that *this is pre-delta*. Still "fog of war" data, but there are many indications outcomes for delta is worse, so numbers in this thread may be an underestimate.
The July modelling included an assumption that delta was 50% more infections than Alfa. This is within the ballpark of most estimates at the time, it may be higher.
They also assume that if vaccinated or previously infected (by any variant) you cannot be infected again.
This I don't think is enough to explain how the model was so very wrong, though a problem I have with this type of modelling in general is so many of the variables are assumptions, and with a phenomenon of exponential growth, small errors can end up being very significant.
8 months after Covid infection and 6 months after a referral to a specialist - a referral that was only accepted after his Doctor *removed* references to Covid - he has an appointment confirmed in 2 weeks.
My Long Covid is much improved following vaccination, but if he feels remotely the way I still often feel, I have no idea at all how he is going to be able to go to school every day. π₯
We looked at travelling abroad to get him vaccinated, but with the announcement they'd started to vaccinating 16-17 yr olds he was hopeful it would extend to him soon (he's 15Β½) and decided against it.
In Sweden, holidays will soon be over, and schools and day care will be reopening fully in 2 weeks for over 2 million children under the age of 18.
There will be no masks, no HEPA filters, no bubbles, no CO2 monitors, no quick tests, no ventilation assessments. >
While exceptions to allow for remote learning are allowed if circumstances dictate (for an individual sick child, or a school outbreak), the general advice is clear that school is back to "normal" in-person learning.>
This is based on the Swedish Public Health Authoritie's assessment, published July 19, that adult vaccinations are high, and the spread of infection is decreasing.>