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user-inactivated  ·  1678 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Swedish expert: why lockdowns are the wrong policy

    A recent test at Karolinska suggested that 11 per cent of people in Stockholm had developed antibodies against the virus. Professor Jan Albert, who has led these tests, says the rate is most likely higher – perhaps substantially higher. So far they have only tested a small sample of blood donors and they can only donate if they are healthy and free of symptoms.

This was two days ago, yesterday the same professor came on the news saying disregard these results, since another group at Karolinska without his knowledge was conducting another experiment at the same time, asking people who had already had the virus to come in and donate blood plasma to try giving it to sick people.

So far I've kind of avoided having a strong opinion on the government response, and politically I think they've played it right by letting the Public Health Agency take the lead. The impression I've got of the people in charge, state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell and the people around him, is that they're competent and ready to change their mind if it turns out the current response is not enough. Swedish people generally trust government agencies, especially during times of distress. Even though the debate is raging on Twitter and in the newspapers, most people seem to be content with the response so far.

On a personal level, I'm happy to not be living under heavy restrictions. My sister recently had a baby and my parents were able to drive to Stockholm to pick up her kids so her friend who has diabetes wouldn't have to come and babysit. I still see my closest friends once a week if we're all healthy, but I haven't traveled to see my family since February. Most people didn't seem to travel during Easter, so I feel like enough people can be trusted to take necessary precautions to prevent the spread. The longer this goes on, the more people might begin to get lazy and forget about the danger, but I guess that might have happened even with restrictions.

Someone said recently that if our strategy works out, it will be the return of unbearable Swedish smugness abroad. I guess time will tell.