Brians356
Gold $$ Contributor
Re: Previous comments I made about T-cells and herd immunity, from The Federalist yesterday:
... Sweden, according to a new study, appears to be on its way to achieving the elusive immunity every other country is craving right now. The analysis suggests that roughly twice as many people in Sweden have COVID-19 immunity, compared to their counterparts in countries that locked down. The source of this potentially life-saving immunity is T-cells, which helped develop antibodies in healthy people who had no infection but were exposed to infectious individuals.
...
As the pandemic struck, the Swedes normalized as much as they could, while maintaining a measure of social distancing. What Sweden didn’t do, unlike most of the globe, is reflexively dive into a full-lockdown scenario. Instead, they allowed life to go continue as ordinarily as possible. Stores remained open. Restaurants remained open. Most importantly, schools remained open as well. The state banned public gatherings of more than 50 people, but any further social distancing measures were largely unenforced and voluntary.
From the start, the Swedish government repeatedly made it crystal clear to the public that the battle against COVID-19-19 would be a marathon, not a sprint, and that many people would die. With all that starkly presented, the decision was made that (mostly) normal life was favorable to the alternatives, and herd immunity and economic stability would be the result.
By every measurable index, Sweden came out of the worst of the initial wave of the pandemic relatively unscathed.
...
Sweden ended up with around the same level of dead proportional to overall population as other countries that did engage in massive lockdowns, and will be more ready than most of the world to face future waves of the virus.
The study:
Robust T cell immunity in convalescent individuals with asymptomatic or mild COVID-19
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.06.29.174888v1.full.pdf
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... Sweden, according to a new study, appears to be on its way to achieving the elusive immunity every other country is craving right now. The analysis suggests that roughly twice as many people in Sweden have COVID-19 immunity, compared to their counterparts in countries that locked down. The source of this potentially life-saving immunity is T-cells, which helped develop antibodies in healthy people who had no infection but were exposed to infectious individuals.
...
As the pandemic struck, the Swedes normalized as much as they could, while maintaining a measure of social distancing. What Sweden didn’t do, unlike most of the globe, is reflexively dive into a full-lockdown scenario. Instead, they allowed life to go continue as ordinarily as possible. Stores remained open. Restaurants remained open. Most importantly, schools remained open as well. The state banned public gatherings of more than 50 people, but any further social distancing measures were largely unenforced and voluntary.
From the start, the Swedish government repeatedly made it crystal clear to the public that the battle against COVID-19-19 would be a marathon, not a sprint, and that many people would die. With all that starkly presented, the decision was made that (mostly) normal life was favorable to the alternatives, and herd immunity and economic stability would be the result.
By every measurable index, Sweden came out of the worst of the initial wave of the pandemic relatively unscathed.
...
Sweden ended up with around the same level of dead proportional to overall population as other countries that did engage in massive lockdowns, and will be more ready than most of the world to face future waves of the virus.
The study:
Robust T cell immunity in convalescent individuals with asymptomatic or mild COVID-19
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.06.29.174888v1.full.pdf
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