Quote from: Yrjö-Koskinen on April 06, 2020, 11:37:11 PM
I was under the impression that part of the policy was to push the problem ahead, as hospitals have lower occupancy rates in summer, field hospitals can be built, supplies of ventilators increased and other equipment, better faster testing etc. I don't think it was ever posited, certainly in the UK, that the epidemic can be prevented as no vaccines yet exist and trials of remedial drugs take months to complete.
Absolutely, but my comment was about the high number of COVID-19 deaths in Sweden. Few of these are caused by any overload of the health care system (there are, after all, some restrictions which have "flattened the curve" to some degree). The argument being made in Sweden is that other countries will have the same number of deaths/capita - at least - before there is some cure/vaccine available, so it's stupid to close down half of the economy just to push those deaths ahead. It makes sense to a point, but might also be insane. It's all a matter of models...
Quote from: Cementimental on April 06, 2020, 11:52:44 PM
Also Sweden has good universal heathcare, not an NHS deliberately near-destroyed by the very people patronisingly telling us to 'save the NHS' and sending us to our rooms without any supper for sitting in the sun for 5 minutes, nor whatever hilariously deranged cyberpunk healthcare nightmare you guys have going on in the USA.
Swedish health care is somewhat overrated by the Anglo-Saxon left. It has huge problems, with long queues, efficiency problems and so on. I don't say that for ideological reasons - believe it or not I generally support "universal health care". Defense against disease is fundamentally a state matter of the same type as military defense, policing and border control. Given the explosion of restrictions in the world since COVID-19 came around, it is clear that everyone else thinks the same once the push comes to shove (no-one is calling for free choice and the market to handle the pandemic, much like no-one would call for those things to handle an invasion by the Chinese or whatever). Still, the Swedish health care system wouldn't be much of an explanation for low death rates even if Sweden had low death rates (which it doesn't).
