Sweden is still far from ‘herd immunity’, although it is not locked

Research conducted by the Swedish Public Health Agency aims to determine the potential for herd immunity in the population, based on 1,118 tests conducted in one week. It aims to carry out the same number of tests every seven days over an eight week period. Results from other regions will be released later, said a spokesman for the Public Health Authority.

Sweden has adopted a different strategy from other Nordic countries during the pandemic, choosing to avoid closure and keep most schools, restaurants, salons and bars open. However, it asks people to refrain from going on a long journey, emphasizing personal responsibility.

This strategy was criticized by Swedish researchers from the start, who said that efforts to create herd immunity had low support. But authorities deny that achieving group immunity is their goal.

The percentage of people with antibodies in Sweden is not much different from other countries that do locking. In Spain, 5% of people have developed coronavirus antibodies on May 14, according to preliminary epidemiological studies by the government.

According to Martin Cuba, the official territory of Jihocesky in the Czech Republic who spearheaded a randomly selected mass trial for the corona virus among the general public and frontline workers, preliminary results indicate that the proportion of people who have the disease stands at “one digit number” rather than ” percent fraction “.

Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, estimated earlier this month on CNN Tonight with Don Lemon that between 5% and 15% of people in the US had been infected.

He said coronaviruses would circulate and infect at least 60% to 70% of the population before slowing down, but warned that the country had a “long way to go” to reach the group’s immune immunity. A report he wrote with epidemiologists and other historians estimates that this will take 18 to 24 months.

Mike Ryan, executive director of the World Health Organization (WHO) Health Emergency Program, said the concept of herd immunity is “a dangerous calculation.”

When asked if he would feel comfortable with an immune passport based on his company’s tests, Swiss drugmaker CEO Roche Severin Schwan told Julia Chatterley CNN: “I believe that we are in a world with a lot of ambiguity, and we also have to make decisions about information that is incomplete. So, I think that is valuable information, but we shouldn’t depend entirely on it. “

On April 24, chief epidemiologist Tegnell told BBC radio that authorities believed Stockholm had “an immunity level … somewhere between 15 and 20% of the population.”

He said the strategy had “worked in several aspects … because our health system has been able to overcome it. There is always at least 20% of intensive care places empty and able to treat Covid-19 patients.”

Asked whether the Swedish approach would help him withstand the possibility of a second wave, Tegnell said he was sure it would happen.

“This will definitely affect the rate of reproduction and slow down the spread,” he said, but added that it would not be enough to achieve “herd immunity.”

But Swedish foreign ministers Ann Linde and Peter Lindgren, managing directors at the Swedish Institute for Health Economics (IHE), said last month that they failed to prevent high mortality rates in nursing homes.