Sweden acknowledges that herd immunity not working

Sweden acknowledges that herd immunity not working

Sweden acknowledges that herd immunity not working. Sweden acknowledges that herd immunity cannot prevent the spread of COVID-19 and will adopt lockdown measures.

According to the Daily Mail, Sweden, known as the benchmark for “herd immunity”, admits that the number of new coronavirus infections is still increasing sharply, and there is no evidence that herd immunity can slow the spread of the virus.

According to statistics from the Swedish health agency, as a country with a population of 10.3 million, Sweden has recorded a total of 225,560 cases of COVID-19 pneumonia and 6,500 deaths. Not only did it not slow down, the number of hospitalizations for COVID-19 pneumonia has almost doubled every week recently.

Anders Tegnell, a Swedish policy maker on “herd immunity”, admitted that the problem of herd immunity is difficult to solve, and we see no signs of slowing down. Not long ago, he believed that Sweden will successfully establish herd immunity, and Sweden will outperform other countries in the second wave of the epidemic. In August of this year, he also confidently announced that Sweden’s low infection rate was due to herd immunity to the first wave of the spring epidemic.

However, Sweden has always been one of the countries with the highest per capita mortality rate. Although it is lower than Spain and the United Kingdom, it is still more than 10 times higher than Norway and 5 times higher than Denmark.

The Swedish health care supervisory agency said that the reality is worse than the current figures. The elderly are at a high risk of death from COVID-19 pneumonia, but Sweden’s ability to protect them during the epidemic is very poor, and many patients have died without medical examination. Of the 6,500 deaths, half occurred in nursing homes, and one quarter were elderly people caring for at home.

Sweden is famous for its excellent welfare system “from cradle to grave”. The high mortality rate brought about by this epidemic has broken this myth. According to the Health and Social Security Inspection Office (IVO), an audit of nursing facilities from March to June showed that 20% of patients with COVID-19 pneumonia in nursing homes did not receive one-to-one treatment, and 40% of them did not receive care from nurses. . Most of the patients who received disease evaluation were conducted by telephone, and less than 10% received real face-to-face diagnosis and treatment.

After that, during the second wave of pandemics after the summer, the number of patients in elderly care facilities surged again, and a more serious death trend than in the spring is about to come.

As we all know, Sweden has never adopted blockade measures like other European countries. The strategy of herd immunity has been widely supported by polls, but it has also been controversial. The number of deaths far exceeds that of neighboring countries. Last week, Tegnell finally stated that Sweden can no longer downplay the risk of the virus and needs to fight the second wave of viruses seriously.

Currently, the Swedish Public Health Agency requires that 17 of Sweden’s 21 regions issue strict restrictions and impose a curfew at 10 pm on bars. The standard for public gatherings was directly reduced to 8 people, discouraging people from going to places where crowds tend to gather. The airport ceased operation, and the train operated at a few percent of the normal service. Great changes have taken place in society. This new policy will be implemented for four weeks and may be extended to Christmas and New Year holidays.

(Source: Sohu)