Look at this. CV19 deaths started fast but nearly stopped 2 month ago.
https://www.worldlifeexpectancy.com/selected-deaths-vs-covid-19-sweden

It didnt "stop", but rather has maintained steady... and yet, they're better off now than most European nations, one has to admit.

OTOH, one has to consider the Swedish's already socially distant nature and their habit of spending this season in the countryside and away from the cities.

 

Look at this. CV19 deaths started fast but nearly stopped 2 month ago.
https://www.worldlifeexpectancy.com/selected-deaths-vs-covid-19-sweden

nordic folks generally socially distance in winter months (fewer/no hugs, kisses and handshakes) and, after a summer at the cabin, they returned to their cities and immediately went into winter mode. The buildings and public transportation is less crowded than most of Western Europe - more like the US.

The biggest difference between Nordic countries and USA is there respect for each other and high level of personal responsibility. And following practices used in Norway and Finland.

If anyone is impressed with the slowdown of new cases in Sweden, you may be interested in this version of the chart for Norway. According to my Nordic friends, Norway has been mostly open since late May. Anyone have more details?

https://www.worldlifeexpectancy.com/selected-deaths-vs-covid-19-norway

 

In most cases it's average health and age of the population that sees to makes the difference in death numbers. Nordic traditions really seem to help.

https://www.pri.org/stories/2020-10-14/why-africa-has-seen-such-low-covid-19-death-rates

As the threat of the coronavirus pandemic emerged earlier this year, many felt a sense of apprehension about what would happen when COVID-19 reached Africa. Concerns over the combination of overstretched, underfunded health systems and the existing load of infectious and non-infectious diseases often led to scenarios being talked about in apocalyptic terms.

Age above all else
The most obvious factor for the low death rates is the population-age structure. Across multiple countries, the risk of dying from COVID-19 for those aged 80 years or more is around a hundred times that of people in their twenties.

This can best be appreciated with a specific example. As of September 30, the UK had reported 41,980 COVID-19 deaths, while Kenya, by contrast, had reported 691. The population of the UK is around 66 million people, with a median age of 40 — compared with Kenya’s population of 51 million, with a median age of 20.

Corrected for population size, the death toll in Kenya would have been expected to be around 32,000. However, if one also corrects for population structure (assuming that the age-specific death rates in the UK apply to the population structure of Kenya), we would expect around 5,000 deaths. Yet there is still a big difference between 700 and 5,000. What might account for the remaining gap?

However, in Kenya it’s estimated that the epidemic actually peaked in July with around 40% of the population in urban areas having been infected. A similar picture is emerging in other countries. This implies that measures put in place had little effect on viral transmission per se, though it does raise the possibility that herd immunity is now playing a role in limiting further transmission.

At the same time, there is another important possibility: the idea that viral load (the number of virus particles transmitted to a person) is a key determinant of severity. It has been suggested that masks reduce viral load and that their widespread wearing may limit the chances of developing severe disease. While WHO recommends mask wearing, uptake has been variable and has been lower in many European countries, as compared with many parts of Africa.

 

In most cases it's average health and age of the population that sees to makes the difference in death numbers. Nordic traditions really seem to help.

https://www.pri.org/stories/2020-10-14/why-africa-has-seen-such-low-covid-19-death-rates

I'd guess that the remaining gap has to do with how much time a typical Kenyan spends outdoors vs indoors compared to the typical Brit. Also, I'd expect that Kenyans do less domestic traveling vs Brits, and this somehow slows the spread a bit.

 

I'd guess that the remaining gap has to do with how much time a typical Kenyan spends outdoors vs indoors compared to the typical Brit. Also, I'd expect that Kenyans do less domestic traveling vs Brits, and this somehow slows the spread a bit.

I've been to Kenya several times. The larger cities are breeding grounds for diseases much worse than Covid-19. I would think the average young healthy Kenyan has a very good immune system. We were advised not to drink anything not bottled and/or mixed with alcohol. I took that health warning to heart.

 

You never let a serious crisis go to waste.

https://dutchreview.com/news/push-for-fireworks-ban-after-hospitals-inundated-with-corona-patients/

Dutch political parties GroenLinks and the Party for the Animals (PvdD) have made a renewed push for a temporary fireworks ban this year. Party leaders argue that hospitals, already pushed to breaking point by the coronavirus crisis, could become further overburdened by fireworks victims.
...
Additionally, while New Years Eve each year always requires extra staffing, this year will be additionally difficult, says Van der Velden. This is because hospital staff risk becoming infected with coronavirus and requiring time off.

 

You never let a serious crisis go to waste.

https://dutchreview.com/news/push-for-fireworks-ban-after-hospitals-inundated-with-corona-patients/

I have several relatives in nursing. New Year's Eve fireworks and gun related injuries between 1am and 4am. Lots of damaged and missing fingers.

One favorite story is a broken cheek bone, some smashed teeth, a bunch of stitches and a ruptured eardrum as someone leaned out of a small bathroom window to fire a .45 automatic into the sky.

 

I have several relatives in nursing. New Year's Eve fireworks and gun related injuries between 1am and 4am. Lots of damaged and missing fingers.

One favorite story is a broken cheek bone, some smashed teeth, a bunch of stitches and a ruptured eardrum as someone leaned out of a small bathroom window to fire a .45 automatic into the sky.

and people slip and die in bathtubs.
https://danger.mongabay.com/injury_death.htm

 

I wasn't for/against the fireworks ban. In fact, standing back and watching combinations of alcohol and fireworks/firearms is as entertaining as a extreme sports crashes YouTube reel.

 

...and, the author of that data analysis needs some help arranging his study. A death from accident as a streetcar occupant extended to lifetime probability? Do you really think they should be calculating probability by dividing unique means of death by the entire US population when most of the population has no access to, for example, a street car, or no intension of riding a motorcycle, or an occupant of a pickup truck. Those numbers are meaningless (useless).

 

Guy I knew in Alabama stepped out onto his front porch to fire off his shotgun to ring in the New Year. Didn't hurt anyone but blew up the AT&T main telephone trunk line running along the power poles in front of his house. AT&T didn't even bother asking how it happened.

 

nordic folks generally socially distance in winter months (fewer/no hugs, kisses and handshakes) and, after a summer at the cabin, they returned to their cities and immediately went into winter mode. The buildings and public transportation is less crowded than most of Western Europe - more like the US.

The biggest difference between Nordic countries and USA is there respect for each other and high level of personal responsibility. And following practices used in Norway and Finland.

If anyone is impressed with the slowdown of new cases in Sweden, you may be interested in this version of the chart for Norway. According to my Nordic friends, Norway has been mostly open since late May. Anyone have more details?

https://www.worldlifeexpectancy.com/selected-deaths-vs-covid-19-norway

I have a brother that lives in Norway. He's just informed me that they've entered a second, more severe, lockdown. His employer (a bank) demands that he works entirely from home, and they're forbidden from participating in gatherings greater than 5 people outside their direct family, and no more than twice a week. All bars and restaurants are shutting down at 10 pm.

 

...and, the author of that data analysis needs some help arranging his study. A death from accident as a streetcar occupant extended to lifetime probability? Do you really think they should be calculating probability by dividing unique means of death by the entire US population when most of the population has no access to, for example, a street car, or no intension of riding a motorcycle, or an occupant of a pickup truck. Those numbers are meaningless (useless).

I agree. Most people are not idiots firing guns randomly or using fireworks irresponsibility too.

The point was using Coronavirus fear to ban or restrict X because it was something anti-X group wanted long before the pandemic.

 

I have a brother that lives in Norway. He's just informed me that they've entered a second, more severe, lockdown. His employer (a bank) demands that he works entirely from home, and they're forbidden from participating in gatherings greater than 5 people outside their direct family, and no more than twice a week. All bars and restaurants are shutting down at 10 pm.

Google translate.
https://www.regjeringen.no/no/aktuelt/nye-nasjonale-innstramminger/id2776995/

 

https://www.thenewstribune.com/news/nation-world/article246814102.html

Death Rates Have Dropped for Seriously Ill COVID Patients

But as the virus continued its rampage, infecting nearly 8.5 million Americans, survival rates, even of seriously ill patients, appeared to be improving. At one New York hospital system where 30% of coronavirus patients died in March, the death rate had dropped to 3% by the end of June.

Doctors in England observed a similar trend.
...
Researchers at NYU Langone Health who zeroed in on this question, analyzing the outcomes of more than 5,000 patients hospitalized at the system’s three hospitals from March through August, concluded the improvement was real. Even when they controlled for differences in the patients’ age, sex, race, underlying health problems and severity of COVID symptoms — like blood oxygen levels at admission — they found death rates had dropped significantly, to 7.6% in August, down from 25.6% in March.

“This is still a high death rate, much higher than we see for flu or other respiratory diseases,” said Dr. Leora Horwitz, director of NYU Langone’s Center for Healthcare Innovation & Delivery Science and senior author of the paper in Journal of Hospital Medicine. “I don’t want to pretend this is benign. But it definitely is something that has given me hope.”

 

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-10-29/china-coronavirus-covid-19-vaccine-secret

BEIJING —
The oil company worker wondered why he had to keep his vaccination a secret. Questions raced through his head as he read the confidentiality agreement, which threatened he would be disciplined if he told anyone outside company management about the COVID-19 shot he was waiting to get.
What if something went wrong? Who would take responsibility? The worker knew the vaccine maker, China National Biotec Group — part of the state-owned pharmaceutical group Sinopharm — was conducting trials of this vaccine on hundreds of thousands of volunteers in the United Arab Emirates, Peru, Morocco and other countries.

 

Now we have a Pandemic waste problem.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/28/business/ppe-ocean-waste/index.html

Used masks and gloves are showing up on beaches and in oceans

 

Now we have a Pandemic waste problem.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/28/business/ppe-ocean-waste/index.html

Used masks and gloves are showing up on beaches and in oceans

It will get worse with spike in take out and online shopping...

In BC we are down to a "safe six" for small gatherings. Meanwhile deaths from COVID have been flat since june despite increasing "cases". I still have not found an official definition of what is considered a case...

But in my rown we finally have 2 confirmed as of 2 weeks ago, announced with a weeks delay. One is in school so everyone is panicing.

What is a bigger and more real issue locally? Garbage and hungry bears...

 

https://apnews.com/article/san-francisco-virus-empty-downtown-965a5a419ef7a1405a04bc4665dbb64c

Some of the change has been positive. Many of San Francisco’s eclectic neighborhoods are bouncing back, buoyed by pedestrian streets newly closed to vehicles and now filled with outdoor dining and kids on bikes.

But there have been many downsides, including rising break-ins and other types of crime, a worsening homelessness crisis and a spike in open drug use.

In the central Hayes Valley neighborhood, the streets have become so filthy that Kim Alter decided against seating people outdoors at her restaurant, Nightbird.

“I would love to do outdoor seating, but I’d have to worry about needles and feces,” said Alter, the restaurant’s chef and owner, who now regularly power-washes sidewalks outside to remove the stench.

Within a four-block radius, more than two dozen establishments have closed as business dries up and customers disappear, she said: “A lot of our regulars have already moved; they come to us and have their final meal — as takeout.”