CNN extols Control Group Sweden for the way it deals with Wuhan Virus.
The Heroes of Socialism! The Left is always comparing the much better life of the Swedes against the Americas and the pandemic cannot be the exception, right?
(CNN) Much of Europe is still on coronavirus lockdown, with severe restrictions on movement and penalties for those who transgress.
But not Sweden. Restaurants and bars are open in the Nordic country, playgrounds and schools too, and the government is relying on voluntary action to stem the spread of Covid-19.
It’s a controversial approach, and one that’s drawn US President Donald Trump’s attention. “Sweden did that, the herd, they call it the herd. Sweden’s suffering very, very badly,” Trump said on Tuesday.
…
Sweden’s strategy, she said, was: “No lockdown and we rely very much on people taking responsibility themselves.”
The country’s state epidemiologist, Anders Tegnell, also pushed back against Trump’s criticism that Sweden was doing badly. “I think Sweden is doing okay,” he told CNN affiliate Expressen. “It’s producing quality results the same way it’s always done. So far Swedish health care is handling this pandemic in a fantastic way.”
Sweden challenges Trump — and scientific mainstream — by refusing to lock down.
Except the numbers are giving a much different result. If you keep reading in the same article, buried down the halfway mark, you find this:
As for deaths, by April 8, coronavirus accounted for 67 fatalities per 1 million Swedish citizens, according to the Swedish Health Ministry. Norway had 19 deaths per million, Finland seven per million. The number of deaths rose 16% on Wednesday.
But by the time I am writing this (2 am Sunday) the number of death had gone up where now Sweden has a rate of 88 deaths per million people. (Pop. 10.2 million)
And the United States stands at 62 deaths per million. (Pop: 328 million)
Here is the clincher: Between yesterday and today was our peak day according to the models. As country in general, we are supposed to be in the beginning of our descent in the number of deaths. Sweden’s peak day is still 3 weeks away on May 4th.
I was taught in high school that when you do experiments, specially involving biologicals, you need to have a Control Group that gives you results of similar subjects or samples untouched by the parameters of the experiment. The you could compare one set of data with the other and figure out scientific stuff.
If the numbers hold and we consider all things equal, I would say (in my very non-scientific manner) the difference between mitigation and non-mitigation is about 30% more deaths.
Message from Sheriff Jim Wilson
DEAR HOME INVASION PEOPLE…
I’D LIKE TO POINT OUT THAT GUNS SALES SET A RECORD IN MARCH.
IN ADDITION…THIS STAY-AT-HOME STUFF HAS GONE ON LONG ENOUGH THAT TEMPERS ARE GETTING A LITTLE SHORT…AND PEOPLE ARE LOOKING FOR ANY EXCUSE TO HAVE SOME EXCITMENT IN THEIR LIVES.
THIS MAY NOT BE THE BEST TIME TO GO BREAKING INTO PEOPLE’S HOMES. TRY SOMETHING SAFER…LIKE CLIMBING INTO THE LION PIT AT THE ZOO….OR KISSING RATTLESNAKES….OR PLAYING CHICKEN WITH A FREIGHT TRAIN.
What was that I read some time ago? “The front door is not there to protect me from you but the other way around.”
Give them an inch and they will take a mile – Lockdown edition
Miguel covered how the Michigan Governor used her authority to tell Home Depot to shut down “non-essential” areas of the store like gardening and flooring, and how cops in Philadelphia were pulling non-masked riders off public transportation.
It seems that social distancing is working to control the spread of the virus.
At the same time, it’s helping to exacerbate the spread of massive government overreach.
Case 1:
In an incident caught on video, a former Colorado State Patrol trooper said he was handcuffed in front of his 6-year old daughter on a near-empty softball field Sunday by Brighton police officers enforcing social distancing rules.
The park was closed.
He also refused to hand over ID, which always makes things worse, and he was eventually released, but that playing catch at a nearly empty park initialized a police response to begin with, is a problem.
Case 2:
A paddle boarder was arrested by authorities in Southern California after ignoring lifeguards’ orders to get out of the ocean for at least 30 minutes despite statewide beach closures due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Bystanders recorded video of the incident near Malibu Pier on Thursday.
It showed a man on a paddle board glide inside the choppy waters while lifeguards were telling him to come back ashore. The man was arrested on suspicion of disobeying a lifeguard and violating a stay-at-home order issued by Governor Gavin Newsom.
Images posted to social media show the man being led in handcuffs by at least two sheriff’s deputies who also confiscated his board. The suspect was booked at a sheriff’s station in Calabasas and released on a promise to appear in court, according to the sheriff’s department. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of six months in jail or a $1,000 fine.
Because being a hundred feet from shore, alone, on a board puts him at risk for catching and spreading the virus.
So the cops made contact with him, arrested him, and presumably took him to jail where he’d be infected or would infect other people.
He’d be in less trouble if he walked into a store and shoplifted $950 in masks, gloves, hand sanitizer, and toilet paper.
Case 3:
The state of Kentucky is taking new action to discourage individuals from participating in mass gatherings, such as church services, Gov. Andy Beshear announced Friday.
The state will be recording the license plates of those who show up to any mass gatherings and provide that information to the local health departments, who will in turn order those individuals to be quarantined for 14 days, according to Beshear.
Beshear said the state is down to less than seven churches state-wide that are still “thinking about” having an in-person service this weekend.
It’s only Easter weekend. The holiest few days in the Christian calendar. Of course the government will punish those who are caught going to church on Easter Sunday in the middle of the Bible Belt.
I don’t want a second spike in the virus. I don’t want more people to die. But can we agree that arresting dads at empty parks with their kids, paddle boarders alone on the water, and people going to Easter Sunday Mass is a pretty overbearing thing to do?
It seems that what is being enforced has less to do with the virus than it does with capricious officious bureaucracy.
You can’t un-ring a bell. Once politicians and police get the big idea that they can get away with this level of crackdown because of a virus, it’s not difficult to believe that they will be willing to flex that muscle over anything else they deem is an emergency.