re: OT: Alabama Coronavirus Thread (see link in OP for case numbers and death totals in AL)

Blount County sheriff won’t enforce coronavirus laws

As I alluded to earlier, this has already been happening below the radar in more rural areas, he's just the first to admit it publicly.

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There have been 5 countries that have done 1M total tests so far and he thinks we can pump out and distribute tests daily like they’re buttons.

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Except about every plan and scenario being talked suggest testing on this scale if not greater.

I think many seem to fail to understand how bad the virus is and can be. I am not near retirement age yet but no time in my life have I seen a situation like we are currently in. This is not the seasonal flu or some virus. It will take a while to recover and if we rush it it will be longer.

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I wonder if it would’ve been better to not be as strict on the lockdowns (closing parks, beaches, non-essential businesses, etc.) in order to sustain a pseudo-shelter in place for a longer period so there isn’t this explosion of social activity once quarantines are lifted. Not sure if that makes sense.

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It would have absolutely been better and people would have accepted them for a LOT longer.

Without a lockdown of some sort, do you think ANYBODY would have listened ?? Serious question .. IDK but a lot of people haven’t taken any precautions anyways I believe it would have worked better but for a different reason . The cases would be a lot higher and spiking and maybe that would scare more people IDK... just a thought

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It would have absolutely been better and people would have accepted them for a LOT longer.

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I agree

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guess what country is now being held up as a model by the WHO for its coronavirus response?

Sweden, who never instituted a lockdown.

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My own opinion is that more rural areas just needed to go quick and hardcore with banning large gatherings and making larger factories institute distancing in production and could have been a lot more lenient in things where single person to single person contact is the norm.



However, Sweden is not a good comparison or example for many other nations. They have too many advantages that we did not.

Just a couple, for example:

1) All Swedish workers have paid sick leave. That means the "self-quarantine if you think you may have been infected" meant no financial loss to Swedes.


2) Populace extremely willing to follow government guidelines voluntarily: Tegnell, the Swedish version of Fauci, said himself "We are not so different than other countries in our actual distancing practices. . . In Sweden, we just prefer voluntary measures, and there is a high level of trust here between the population and the authorities, so we are able to avoid coercive restrictions."


Again, I'm not saying any US leader didn't make a lot of mistakes in dealing with this when almost every one of them did so but Sweden just isn't a good comparison when we have so many disadvantages compared to them.

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My own opinion is that more rural areas just needed to go quick and hardcore with banning large gatherings and making larger factories institute distancing in production and could have been a lot more lenient in things where single person to single person contact is the norm.

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That is exactly my position. I am not saying the Swedish model is directly applicable to the US - but by the same token New York steps were never needed for Slapout, Alabama but they were implemented because our leaders were too scared to exercise good judgment.

All three of these points are valid in regards to Sweden.

Also of note is that the population of Sweden is roughly 10 million people, which is only about half of the New York metropolitan area.

Although recent immigration has created some social diversity, Swedish society is ethnically and religiously very homogeneous.

In regards to their COVID response, much like the viability of their social programs, comparisons with Scandinavia are certainly interesting, but inherently difficult to a nation of nearly 330 million people having a much more diverse geography, makeup, and belief systems.

In other words, I think both approaches can be feasible in context, and they're really hard to compare directly.

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Of Sweden's 10.3 million population, some 2.5 million are recent immigrants, most of whom are from Middle Eastern, North African, and East Asian countries and do NOT naturally socially distance in public.

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Yes, lots of people in Sweden who have been calling for more formal government measure have cited larger outbreaks within some immigrant communities that have thumbed their noses at the social distancing requests.