New Zealand has dropped down its alert levels, though Auckland remains at 2 where the rest of the country is at 1. In Europe, cases are climbing but there’s resistance to any further hard lockdowns. And how are things looking for the Swedish experiment?
Back around a loop to higher level alerts. We are saving people, or our economy, or both. Maybe. How do things compare in Sweden, where they have taken the distancing rather than the lockdown approach?
We have employed a water diviner. Why? As a household of scientists who think the right way to look at COVID-19 is to assess the data. In the case of the Swedish experiment, the data say a lot more people died as a result of their approach. What the economic outcome will be remains to be seen in the longer term.
Where has the New Zealand COVID experiment got to in the last 5 weeks? In comparison to China, or Sweden, we’re looking pretty good. Which is why we are moving from Alert Level 4 to Level 3 for the next 2 weeks.
How many more people are dying because of COVID than would have died anyway? Would the majority of COVID deaths have occurred reasonably soon because the infected people were ill or elderly? How much resource do we put into people close to death? The point at which one is allowed to die rather than being treated is not discussed enough in society and needs more debate.
We are still holding our breaths but the Ardern & Bloomfield Show tomorrow will tell us whether we will be stepping down from Level 4. What do you pick? What do I pick? I’ve looked up the factors that are likely to be taken into account.
How’s the experiment going? New Zealand’s vital COVID stats – testing, cases, deaths (only one so far) – are looking good. Norway, Denmark and Sweden are looking similar, which is odd given Sweden’s very different approach, not locking down.
Here we are in our bubble wondering how much news to read each day. I’ve added Denmark to my graph to compare more widely in Scandinavia. I’m thinking deaths may be more indicative of the state of COVID than cases because who knows how each country defines cases. At least deaths in Italy are increasing at a lower rate than last week, after locking down.
The world is setting up COVID-19 management experiments and New Zealand is one of them. We will be able to compare, in an action research setting, how different approaches to COVID work. New Zealand and Norway are lockding down, like much of Europe, while Sweden is staying open and asking people to physically isolate. I will watch the case data with interest.
