Overreaction to COVID19?

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Working on Brain Machine Interfaces at Neuralink
 Psynaptic
Sep 22, 2020 44 Comments

Let me preface this by saying I'm not a political person. I usually don't follow politics much, and as I'm not a citizen, I also don't vote. If I had to place myself on the political spectrum, it would probably be center left.

I was discussing with friends about the economic fallout from the COVID pandemic in the US, and the Sweden model was brought up. Basically, they're quarantining the old and vulnerable, and letting everyone else proceed with their lives as normal. As a result, their economy has suffered the least out of the EU nations, but they've had about 2x the deaths (still, much lower than the US on a per capita basis.)

Looking at official CDC stats:

https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#demographics

and at WHO stats, the decease looks pretty damn harmless to most people in the workforce ages. In fact, the vast majority of deaths come from retired age folks, and given that they're minority of the cases, that means it's even more disproportionate how much it affects older people vs younger. In fact, from the stats, the CDC has calculated that the elderly are up to 630x more likely to die than people 18-29.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/covid-data/investigations-discovery/hospitalization-death-by-age.html

Do you support something like the Sweden model (protecting only the old and vulnerable), and think a blanket shutdown of the economy is a stupid way to respond to COVID? If not, what makes the blanket shutdown of the economy (which is declining at an annualized rate of -33%) worth it compared to Sweden's approach?

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 TOP 44 Comments
  • Intel
    jdavola

    Go to company page Intel

    jdavola
    The US has under-reacted, and sadly, now 200k are dead.
    Sep 22, 2020 17
    • Mozilla
      aG8yb6

      Go to company page Mozilla

      aG8yb6
      I’m not even talking about stay at home @un-defined. I’m saying if some one died from Covid, even if we are talking severe comorbidity, they died from COVID. Just like if I died because I got sick with a series of illnesses caused by Cancer, but had heart problems first, I would still have died because of the Cancer. It’s a basic matter within epidemiology.
      Sep 23, 2020
    • Walmart
      un-defined

      Go to company page Walmart

      un-defined
      I see your point but the truth is that we don’t know the truth.

      https://khn.org/news/californias-deadliest-spring-in-20-years-suggests-covid-undercount/

      Excess deaths don’t correlate with covid deaths so Kaiser tries to spin it so that they get more covid related funding.

      We just have to accept the fact that we don’t know and probably will never know what the actual number of deaths is.

      The whole thing is so politicized that no source can be trusted.
      Sep 23, 2020
  • man, when you are talking about this, is not only % or some numbers in the paper, is human life.... no matter which age group, is the most important and basic human right - to live in this beautiful world. Back to February or March, some people are double that Asian saying China is too strict for covid 19, but the results so far tell everything. Anyone support this Sweden model, is probably just ignore the fact that Sweden is a quite special country with low density of population and the natural culture of social distance.
    Sep 22, 2020 9
    • Walmart
      un-defined

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      un-defined
      It is not just decreased quality of life. It actually is people dying because their cancer is not being diagnosed, because they overdose, because they are depressed, because they are financially ruined.
      And no, our government is already bankrupt and cannot support this insanity that has no scientific basis to it.
      What would you do if you were the president?
      Would you keep the country on an indefinite lockdown?
      Sep 22, 2020
    • Google
      lot57

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      lot57
      Agree with Walmart. People are hyper focused on covid deaths and ignoring the bigger picture here. You want to spend resources in the most efficient way to maximize global well being and life years. Lockdowns have many second order effects (economic destruction, suicides, delayed cancer diagnoses, depression, supply chain disruptions) which we are hand waving away because they are hard to measure. Every policy is a tradeoff and I think it will become clear in the coming years how much damage we are self inflicting here by accident. Covid is a first world's disease and another guise under which a vast amount of wealth and power is being transferred from the poor to the rich.
      Sep 23, 2020
  • You have to also take into account the population density, and cultural/societal norms.

    Sweden, outside of Stockholm and Gothenburg, is not very densely populated, and Swedes tend to keep physical distance as a cultural norm (pre-covid).
    Due to this, a more relaxed quarantine policy is more effective in Sweden than it would be here.
    Sep 22, 2020 0
  • New
    jSJs14

    New

    jSJs14
    This argument has already been repeatedly debunked. Sweden did not let "everyone else proceed with their lives as normal". There were major restrictions on businesses and heavy encouragement to WFH. Their economy has been hard hit like countries with stricter lockdowns. It also has a much more substantial safety net for protecting vulnerable people than the US.
    Sep 22, 2020 4
    • New / R&D
      Psynaptic

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      Neuralink
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      Working on Brain Machine Interfaces at Neuralink
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      OP
      Well there we go. The difference is small businesses survived because they were not forced to forego 6 months of business
      Sep 22, 2020
    • New
      jSJs14

      New

      jSJs14
      I don't think they have done great but neither has the US. I'm also just not convinced the same approach would ever work here. US has this viscious cycle where the govt is low quality and people have no trust in it so nobody wants to fund it or hold it to higher standards. Swedes have a lot of trust in their government, a good safety net if they fall on hard times (covid or not), and a distinct culture. It's just not the same.
      Sep 22, 2020
  • Google
    FehDwer6

    Go to company page Google

    FehDwer6
    Sweden’s gdp went down by a lot more than other countries that locked down (eg other Nordic countries) so ya know there is that
    Sep 22, 2020 1
    • New / R&D
      Psynaptic

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      Neuralink
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      Working on Brain Machine Interfaces at Neuralink
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      OP
      That's not what I see. Can you provide your source?
      Sep 22, 2020