Looks like the biggest hit European countries are all going down. Lifting restrictions slowly after Easter seem feasible now. Who knows, maybe I'll be able to go to work again in May.

It's no exaggeration when I say that Germany and most Scandinavian countries handled it amazingly better than the US. Kinda like they handle most things better than the US.

I wouldn't say Sweden has handled it well, looks to me they are running around like headless chickens than anything

That's specifically why I said most. Sweden is terrible at everything as usual. Sweden is like the Florida of Europe, nobody likes them.

40,000 what exactly?

Deaths in the US? Yeah, that's unrealistic - unrealistically low!

Deaths in New York? Sounds a bit high but not impossible the way it is going.

40,000 needing ventilators in NY? Keep in mind that  a lot of persons outside of the ICU may be needing some, too. And don't forget all those who were dependent on them even before the Coronavirus came. This need didn't just magically disappear, it's not just Coronavirus patients that need ventilators. Besides, there are 26,000 people in NY being hospitalized from the Coronavirus right now, so at the rate it's rising there, those 40k may be very well needed just for Covid-19 cases soon.

That's not how things will happen. It's simply unfeasible to wait until everyone had the disease or until there is a vaccine. Some restrictions can be easily lowered, not that current restrictions are even that hard. One thing that could be done is mandatory masks. People can leave their homes on their own risk while lowering their potential to infect others significantly.

We don't have to wait until every single person is either immune or vaccinated so that life can start to happen again. It just needs to be suppressed enough, exactly like we do it with every other infectious disease. Mark my words, life will go on as usual long before even half of the population is vaccinated or immune.

edit: before people go literal nazi on me again, with "life as usual" I include life as usual with light restrictions, such as public distancing, mandatory face masks in crowded places or even regular mandatory tests.

Sweden says they know better than the rest of the world.
They are trying to keep economy/jobs, so arnt shutting anything down (no lockdowns).

Their holding onto the idea of building up herd immunity in a controlled mannor.... or seeing if they can let it ride itself out, without a shutdown.

Rest of the world (most of europe), once they say people dieing..... *blinked* (paniced), and called that sh*t off.

In sweden, I think all work places are still open, resturants, schools,.... they just politely ask people not to go gathering in large groups.
(no koncerts, konvensions with large gatherings ect) (they take extra care around the elderly, and ask them to stay at home)

What crazy is because they have no shutdown, and everything is still open.
Danes can go to sweden, get infected and then come back here, to futher spread.
(our lockdown keeps others out, but not ourselves from leaveing and comeing back if needed)

Theres people going to work over there, or haveing kids in school over there.
Its a mess.


Whats crazy is their rate of spread doesnt appear that much more horrible than the one in denmark.
However if you look at the deaths, yesterday in denmark we lost 8 lives to corona virus (sweden lost 79).

Isn't Sweden not even testing properly?

Here in Stockholm, which has seen the brunt of cases, they haven't even been testing personnel at hospitals and treatment facilities, due to lack of resources and the insistence from authorities that "there's no point in testing or tracking infection trends". And I'm not even making that up. Swedish healthcare was close to buckling before this crisis, it's not exactly improving.

Getting multiple bigger waves of the virus with spaced out prolonged lockdowns might be the way to go. The state has to take money from somewhere and it won't be able to do that if it doesn't get some money. People won't get money without providing it, that's what economy is all about.

Stretched out sporadic slumps might be better to handle than one single complete collapse. Like taking a loan. Sure, you pay overall more due to interest, but it's better than having to pay everything upfront. Humans aren't min-maxable.