Would you rather be here or in Sweden?

[Forgetaboutme]

There's been a lot of talk about the way Sweden are handling the coronavirus situation. Schools still open, bars n clubs plus shops still open. The vulnerable being shielded and the rest social distancing or working from home where possible.

Would you rather be here on lockdown? Or in Sweden?

Do you feel safer on lockdown or if you lived somewhere like Sweden would you have been happy to live how they are at the moment?

Just bored here and wondering what people thought.

The death rate in Sweden is not low given the population difference, and I have a feeling it is going to rise massively. I think they are making a mistake, and that they are gambling with lives. Massive uncontrolled death in a pandemic also kills the economy, increases suicides and MH problems but people over here don’t seem to get that.

Did not know the uk had the 4th highest death rate in the world - that's shocking with the head start we had

We don’t really know any country’s death rate as different countries are taking very different approaches to testing. The UK is testing hardly anyone so our death rate will look high.

In answer to the question - I think Sweden will have a shocking time over the next few months (though possibly not that much worse than here) but in the long run, it will do better than lockdown countries.

We maybe 6th in deaths but we are also 2-3 weeks behind most of the countries listed - why are people not getting that? We will not stay 6th we are already seeing more deaths than Italy did at their peak.

If so, what happens when they open up again? The virus will still be around and wanting to spread.

That's what I don't understand - how is the containment helping in the longer term? Obvs I know it lessens the burden on the hospitals / medics, but in tems of reducing cases and deaths, why would it slow down when restrictions are lifted? Presumably alsaso fliughts will be going again and mixing people from all countries.

I think we are relying on 1) antibody test being developed asap, 2)finding treatment for it, lessening the effects by drugs as there is talk of progress there.
Other than that, surely there will be waved of it and more deaths but just more spread out?

*waves

I'd rather be here. I'm in a sparsely populated part of the U.S. and feel very safe. In the county where we live there's many miles between any people and only two people in whole county have caught the CoVid and they both caught it out of state. It's as if there is no pandemic going on here although all the county offices are closed AND also the gun shops!

The pot shops are open as they are essential apparently.

No one is stopping us from being out and about or restricting what we buy. Everyone in the county seems to be using common sense when out shopping and it's good to see. (I did see some foolishness in bigger city last week).

We farm and so our work/income is unaffected. I feel guilty when I see how other people's lives have been impacted by the pandemic.

Zen, what’s a pot shop please?

The death rates and the testing levels are just not data that are comparable between countries. Unless every country is carrying out the same pro rata number of tests per day and all declaring virus related deaths the same way, no figures mean much in the grand scale of things.

India with a population 1.3 billion has about 7,500 cases right now for example. How many tests per day are Sweden carrying out, the figures differ on several websites? It is not easy to compare.

Here at the moment but who knows in a few months!

Here purely because I wouldn’t want the high viral load

Zen, what’s a pot shop please?

Legal Marijuana dispensary I presume. They are open where I am too but for delivery only.

Oh, so it is pot

I didn’t know the US had gone so far as to have pot shops. Cool.

Im interested in the results, they've accepted themselves as the control group that we can compare against.

I dont wish to be there no. We've taken a risk averse approach to save the NHS. They're taking more risk. Good on them.

I'd hope we'll see real data. Cuz i'm struggling to trust all governments

I'm meant to be in Sweden tight now with my family. I'd rather be here.

Sweden, for the reasons Eyewhisker gives

Are we allowed to travel to Sweden?! I wonder if a kindly family would take me in as a nanny or something 😂

I bet Sweden is pretty.

Sweden may have more deaths in the short term but the question is whether it will pan out due to gaining herd immunity faster due to increasd spread of disease where it figuratively burn itself out.

We have have less deaths in the short term but if we have another peak in september (or several peaks) we may still end up with similar stats overall.

Short sharp pain or protracted woe.

Think I'd prefer Sweden, coming out of lockdown will be a problem and so is staying in we're trapped. You can already see some people refusing to send their children back to school.

Here.
I’ve just checked Sweden’s data and their cases and deaths are raising quite sharply.They are just a bit behind us.

why would it slow down when restrictions are lifted?

Some theories are that the heat of summer could slow it down, as could a degree of acquired herd immunity. Plus increasing research on the virus could lead to ways of slowing the spread or at the least the mortality rate, and result in the discovery of an effective anti-viral.

I'm not convinced any of that will happen though, and fully expect a second wave at least.

Isn't the point that due to their healthcare they have a healthy population and their health services can cope - allegedly better than ours?

I am in NZ. The aim is elimination and then strict border controls until a vaccine is found. This will hit tourism hard but there is lots of talk about kiwis exploring their own country for a year or two and promoting domestic tourism.

Sweden