UPDATE: Sweden will reach herd immunity at around 71,610 deaths.
Liberalism is the ultimate comorbidity:
The UK has had more Coronavirus deaths than the following countries COMBINED
— Richard Burgon MP (@RichardBurgon) May 1, 2020
??Belgium
??Germany
??Netherlands
??Switzerland
??Ireland
??Portugal
??Romania
??Poland
??Austria
??Denmark
??Ukraine
??Finland
??Norway
??Greece
The UK has 67m people. The others around 270m people.
UK's update:
— Norbert Elekes (@NorbertElekes) May 1, 2020
– Number of new cases up
– Number of new deaths up
– Number of new people tested up
– Over 900,000 tests completed so far
I’ve been watching this play out on FOX News.
I think I have figured out why Tucker Carlson has recently become so obsessed with Sweden. It is because conservatives and libertarians have always preferred to do nothing about the coronavirus.
Back in February, the private equity and hedge fund billionaires who finance Trump made the call to “ride it out” and treat it like it was “just the flu.” This was the narrative on FOX News in February and early March. FOX News only briefly deviated from this narrative in mid-March, but has since reverted to its original position and Sweden has been plucked out of its context in Europe to push that narrative.
As a nationalist and populist, this was initially confusing to me because Sweden didn’t look like much of a success story in fighting the virus. It has one of the highest death tolls in the world. Unlike the United States, China was blindsided by the virus and crushed it in three weeks. In Taiwan, the health minister broke down in tears when the eleventh case was confirmed. Taiwan closed its borders and regulated international flights and as a result only 6 people have died there. Hong Kong closed its border with China and only 4 people died there. No one has died in North Korea, Mongolia or Vietnam.
Why isn’t Tucker Carlson touting South Korea or Singapore as a success story? Only 248 people and 16 people have respectively died there from the virus. Why isn’t Tucker Carlson showcasing the success that Australia and New Zealand have had in eradicating the virus after taking the extraordinary step to close their borders? Only 93 and 19 people have respectively died there from the virus. New Zealand has even declared victory over the virus after eradicating local transmission.
What is it about Sweden that has attracted so much attention from conservatives and libertarians?
It is certainly not the deaths to recoveries ratio.
It is not the case fatality rate.
The CFR of COVID-19 in Sweden is 12.26%. There are only four countries in Europe where it is higher: Belgium, France, Italy and the UK. In contrast, the case fatality rate in Norway is 2.71%. In Australia and New Zealand, it is 1.37% and 1.28%. The case fatality rate in the United States where 64,503 people have died is only 5.89%. The CFR in Sweden is TWICE what it is here and this is somehow reassuring?
Sweden stands out from its neighbors in Northern Europe in that is doing much worse than all of them. Why isn’t Norway hailed as a success story? Deaths are 79 per million in Germany compared to 263 per million in Sweden. It is 33 per million in Hungary, 17 per million in Poland, 39 per million in Norway and 39 per million in Finland, 79 per million in Denmark, on 22 per million in Czechia.
Here’s why none of these countries are touted by Tucker Carlson on FOX News: Germany has a universal multipayer health care system and imposed a strong national lockdown. Norway and Denmark went into lockdown. China and Singapore went into lockdown. Australia and New Zealand went into lockdown and closed their borders. All of these other countries like Hungary, Vietnam, Mongolia, North Korea and Taiwan closed their borders to deal with the virus. South Korea and Singapore have used what Tucker Carlson decries as Big Tech surveillance state tyranny to fight the virus. The Czechs required the public to wear masks and that alone brought down the virus far better than Sweden’s approach.
Sweden’s response to the virus has also been severely misrepresented by conservatives and libertarians. Sweden is full of Swedes who trust and obey the government. Large numbers of Swedes work from home anyway. The situation in Sweden is in no way comparable to what the “Liberty or Death” conservatives and libertarians want to do here in the United States after ending the lockdowns.
Note: Even Donald Trump rebuked Bill Mitchell on Sweden.
Sweden returns to its most-backward position, being the last place in Europe to end serfdom, and even worse than serfdom: Swedish peasants were literally starving and millions fled to the U.S. and Canada in the late nineteenth century, while those who stayed behind had to fight very hard to win freedom and equality from “nobility” who still do not care about the health of the Swedish people. Now the Swedish people are deluded, and they are voluntarily re-accepting their chains. Neoliberal Sweden is also returning to militarism with the deluded people’s tacit consent.
You nailed it. These people are simply delusional.
“Durr hurr, if only we had done what Sweden did, because the US is just like Sweden, just look at this graph that tells me nothing to that extent but which should lead you to conclude exactly that”
See more: https://tinyurl.com/truth-about-sweden
Cold eye on this.
Are the GOP hoping this virus scours out the ghetto? Hoping to shift the demographic balance of power in the US? Its a serious question.
This contagion is going to ravage the ethnic minorities something fierce.
Wealthier whites with mor isolated rural lives just won’t suffer the way the other groups in the urban core will suffer.
In London, Birmingham, Manchester there’s a very good chance that Labour will be broken if this ravages through the black brown population properly.
“This contagion is going to ravage the ethnic minorities something fierce.”
It’s going to ravage the elderly worse and this is a demographic that represents the old, pre-1965 America (89% white and 11% black). This is Trump’s base so it makes no sense to let them die off if he wants to get reelected.
I believe Trump’s strategy to get through this crisis is to simply tell bald-faced lies to his supporters, just like he did with “the wall”. There are a significant number of Trumptards out there who think he actually built it and its working.
The breakdown of supply chains, particularly food will unleash havoc from the chocolate colored hordes this summer. They aren’t known for their good eating habits anyway seeming to subsist on 10 Lb. buckets of KFC, 40 oz. malt liquor and weed. Not being far sighted people who put something away for a rainy day they will be gravely disappointed when their EBT benefits cannot buy their usual delicacies and are likely to take the sage advice of the Philosopher of Ferguson (Mo.) to wit: “Burn this bitch down!” This goes double when the temperatures are +90 deg. F. and there are power failures.
“Not being far sighted people who put something away for a rainy day ”
Why should they?
Whiteh will always bail them out, even if it means starving White kids.
…aaaaaannnnd?
Aaaaand be many miles away from the mayhem and watch the show on TV. Remember, the U.S. Government, in its infinite wisdom keeps saying “we’re all in this together.” Since the U.S. Government created the problems of diversity let the U.S. Government fix the problems of diversity, without any help from white people. As Mother Teresa would say: “Take care of your own and scorn the rest.”
The mayhem breaking loose in diverse areas will show even dyed-in-the-wool SJW types that they are hated too. Since many of them live amongst the zoo animals they will get a big dose of diversity, up close and personal.
Unfortunately, most of them are unteachable, they will learn nothing. The lesson to be learned by the ignorant is that all men arenot created equal, there are irreconcilable differences between us and them, all of “them”. Diversity + proximity = war.
What would you do if you were in charge?
I don’t know. My ruthless side thinks, gas the ghetto while there’s a cover story. My humane side feels we gotta help everyone who’s in trouble.
“My humane side feels we gotta help everyone who’s in trouble.”
Dopey White man.
The very sentimentality that is killing the White race, but understood.
I have no humane side towards these vile invaders, these disgusting aliens who hate us and scorn us with every cell of their being.
Once you actually get a feel for the cold, venomous, unsleeping loathing these orcs have for us, the brutality, greed, and callousness of their nature, all thought of “helping them” goes out the window. Oh, sure, they can put on a fake grin when it’s advantageous, but NEVER forget that there’s eternal hate for everything that isn’t them, and complete disregard for our norms except as they’re superficially compelled to observe them by superior force at times, is right under the surface.
Reserve your kindness for your own people, and your pets and some of the small, harmless birds and wild critters around your area.
These other bipeds are hostile and alien through and through. No compassion, no sentimentality, should be wasted on these belligerent savages. They aren’t like us, they will ALWAYS be out to destroy us and the future of our descendants, and get as much as they can from us.
Out of deference to our host’s general avoidance of swearing, I wouldn’t urinate on them if they were on fire.
Mass repatriation. Depopulate London by around 3,000,0000. Wishful thinking but there are radical possibilities.
London ???
Oh, you mean Karachi on the Thames.
Nuke it from orbit. Its the only way to be sure.
Liberal/Libertarian/Conservative/SJW America I mean, not the virus.
I would recommend standard flu avoidance methods and quit hysteria. Exactly like Sweden and Belarus do or what I do myself not only now but every flu season.
They work. When my country got finally Nazi Government, we made a massive information campaign, got hand sanitizer to on sale to every shop and canceled all taxes on sanitizer. The result. Seasonal flu deaths went down by 300% and stay there.
Of course in multicultural countries things are sophisticated. You may recommend simple and effective methods but diversity will not use them.
My parents and especially my aunt’s and uncles have Fox on 24 hours a day. It really is uncomfortable to be sitting at a family table over a meal or coffee and be barraged by what is equivalent to East German television propaganda while trying to keep your mouth shut.
Tucker has been ice cold for awhile now. Everything is about how your freedom is defined by what convenience stores and sports events are open to the public while waging a non stop war of words against China and mocking Sweden
HW, great analysis, with lots of depth and solid facts.
Another good comparison is Czechia/Sweden.
Both countries have about the same population.
sweden is a dead nation, maybe thats why the cuckservatives seems to care now…
The United States has x32 the population of Sweden.
2,586 x32 = 82,752
How is this considered a success?
The US is doing better despite how badly bungled the response was.
I’m waiting for your coronavirus OCD to end, so that I may once again enjoy your insightful observations regarding politics, history, and philosophy. We cannot remain in confinement for the next five years, particularly since we’re inundated with daily doses of contradictory information. We cannot do what small, authoritarian, sparsely populated countries can. We can’t even do what New Zealand did.
I binged on that from March through September last year
It wouldn’t take five years. As multiple nations have already shown, it takes about a month to defeat the virus if it is properly handled. Many states in the USA haven’t been hit so hard that it’s too late. On the other hand, opening everything up will just ensure it drags on for months and ravages the population, the economy, etc.
There will. Be a widely available vaccine by the end of August.
Oh yeah sure take the sissy 5gates vaccine why don’t cha sure it will solve everything and probably isn’t the mark of the beast
August is actually best case scenario for the vaccine to be fully developed there might not be one until june next year
I really doubt it. More likely there will be an anti-viral drug that is fairly effective.
I’m not taking a vaccine if there is one, though. And I even have a risky condition.
It’ll be for oldsters and medics
So – have any great eateries opened up yet, in good old Alabammy? Where are you taking the Fam for dinner this weekend?
I’ve gained weight from eating so much take out. The restaurants never closed here only indoor seating
Why aren’t you doing your own cooking? We do all the cooking. I did get my cheeseteak about a week ago – but it was only one time. I haven’t gone to a restaurant since last year.
There is this one little joint that I love. The food is superb, and the bartender is a GENIUS. But the appeal is not just the food. It’s the crowd. The atmosphere. I miss just being there.
Normally, I do, but I have been supporting local businesses out of patriotism. I’ve ate more takeout in the last month than in the last two years. I’ve had everything: Mexican, Chinese, Japanese, Italian, Cajun, burgers, etc.
If one of the infected coofs on your food while they are making it, you and your family are screwed.
While I don’t agree with Sweden on most things, in this case they have accepted the fact that the virus is her to stay. Those inl lockdown are just putting of the pain. THe virus is not going to disappear because of lockdown.
There’s going to be a vaccine ready for mass distribution in September.
Hopefully it will hit their invasive species population the hardest.
No lockdown means you’re more likely to be infected, but why on earth would it mean you’re more likely to die from that infection? I don’t expect Hunter to have an answer. The fact that Sweden, for whatever reason, happens to have higher case fatality rate was too good pass up.
There is no international uniformity in the way deaths or, even more so, recoveries are recorded. The very same site from which Hunter retrieved the Sweden recoveries statistic doesn’t even record a recoveries figure for the UK or Netherlands. (I check that site daily. It used to, but the recoveries stated for UK and Netherlands were for weeks on end so minuscule that it gave up and now just states N/A, probably in order to avoid misleading people — especially people who are only too willing to be misled if it helps their case, like our Hunter.)
That aside, this is indeed a good question:
Tucker seems to have a better sense than most “conservative” commentators that GOP voters care about more than just free markets. So he’s willing to criticize hedge funds, talk about the opioid crisis etc. But at heart, he’s a system pundit. That shouldn’t be forgotten.
The numbers of deaths and recoveries should flip like it did here, but for some reason it hasn’t yer. Sweden does report recoveries though
Agreed, Hunter, I find the volte-face from Tucker Carlson utterly bizarre. Apparently he thinks the virus cannot be contained. He is wrong. Combating the virus without lockdown is fairly straightforward and has been done before in South Korea, Taiwan, etc.