Germany to provide free antigen testing to everyone available at pharmacies.
Merkel has also directed that work be commenced on a plan for a phased easing of restrictions. The plan is to be a cautious and phased approach that includes widespread testing.
Iâm not sure where youâre getting your stats but there are a few things to consider.
There was the graph posted that had Ireland with a higher number of over 65 deaths when demographics are properly considered. An issue is there that Ireland are likely over-counting Covid deaths, the Swedes are quite aggressive but I believe Ireland are the country counting the most aggressively. This seems to reflect that younger under 65s remain higher for Sweden (albeit it is low generally still) - I suspect we look harder at younger peopleâs causes of deaths than just Covid.
It also doesnât matter if you are simply moving the curve a month or two for deaths, as Ireland has essentially done. Ireland has had 378 deaths per million since January 1st, Sweden has had 268- all of this with a lower population. Moving the curve by a month is not a policy success.
All in all we need to see how things shake out over a 12-18 month period on excess deaths and economic costs. My view is that the fact that people are score counting Sweden being close to countries locked down suggests that the costs really arenât worth it. Most of the criticisms of Swedish policy last March centred on schools and young kids. Most European nations want them open.
The Swedish government believe theyâve made a hames of it, changing their constitution to allow them to enforce striter restrictions. @Tierneevin1979 reckoned they were done with Covid last March. @Enrique sent the Swedish government a graph and 3 line back of a fag-pack excel calc explaining how Sweden have done a great job. Itâs still under review afaik. The TFK expert opinion goes against Swedenâs own opinion but we reckon the back of the fag pack calc is a game changer and Sweden will fall in line eventually.
I honestly donât understand how people can point to a table of countries to compare who has done well and who hasnât.
Every single country is completely different on every level. So unless these tables account for differences in population makeup (age, gender, ethnicity) population density, obesity levels, underlying illnesses prevalent, weather and climate, diet, health care system etc. etc. etc⊠How can you honestly sit there and say X has done better than Y without taking hundreds of different variables between all the different countries into play?