Much has been made of the fact that the Swedes did not do a lock down of their society while other nations did. Now with a "second wave" of Covid19 sweeping across Michigan I though a comparison of where we stand today might be apt and useful.
Why compare? Well, it turns out Sweden and Michigan are roughly similar in population, but took a vastly divergent approach in handling the outbreak.
Since it looks like our Governor Half-Whit is poised to double down via the Department of Health and Human Services on the lock down and harsh restrictions approach, it makes sense to see how a different approach as fared.
Let's see how Michigan and Sweden measure up:
Sweden, without a lock down, did markedly better in all relevant areas in terms of number of cases, deaths, and their economy in terms of unemployment. They did it without a lock down, a mask mandate, and without stupidly ordering nursing homes to take in Covid19 positive patients.
Far harder to quantify is the loss of quality of life in Michigan due to the lock downs, those harmed from losing their jobs, those suffering from mental and emotional harm form the lock downs, and those who may yet die form not having their medical issues either detected or properly treated during the lock downs.
Let's rethink returning to a lock down for this state, now shall we? The definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result. Let's instead use the "best science and best data as our Gov Half Whit likes to say, and try a different and more effective approach.
4 comments:
Interesting, and will, of course, be ignored... sigh
Sweden ALSO has a 21.6% 65 and older population. Michigan is only 18%
The point of the lockdowns is social control with a secondary goal of creating dependancy upon the state by bankrupting individuals and small businesses. In that regard Michigan is succeeding quite nicely compared to Sweden. The Republicans in the legislature need a spinal insfusion so that they can take steps to remove Whitemer for exceeding her auhtority.
Old NFO: Yep, or otherwise it will be argued against by those who claim lock downs are awesome.
Jason Gillman: Yes, and that shows even more how badly Michigan has done. Sweden's aged population is part of why Sweden had more deaths than its neighbors from the outset - more "dry tinder" leading to more deaths from covid at the outset as they had less of a bad flu season last year than their neighbors.
Frederick: Yes and its succeeding admirably in that goal. How much of this is to distract form the calls for an election audit and recount in this state is definitely a question.
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