BREAKING—Sweden imposing further bans on public events. Prime Minister: "It's going to get worse. I'll say it again. It's going to get worse. Take responsibility to stop the spread of infection. Don't have dinners. Don't have parties. Cancel.” #COVID19 https://www.thelocal.se/20201116/breaking-sweden-introduces-limit-of-eight-coronavirus

2) This is a dramatic shift in tone from Sweden before. Sweden epidemic surge is just too hot now. Higher than its neighbors, despite previous predictions of greater herd immunity. Didn’t pan out.

3) here was Sweden’s bold and arrogant proclamation previously.

4) Previous limitations were insufficient. “An earlier exemption which meant restaurants were excluded from the limit on event attendees will also be removed with the law change. Previously, restaurants allowed to host events for >50 people, but no longer the case.”

5) “More than eight people will still be allowed in restaurants at the same time (although not as part of the same group) but the change means restaurants will in practice not be able to host events such as music performances due to the eight-person limit on events.”

6) Longer thread on Sweden’s controversial herd approach, including Swedish scientists who opposed the dumb pandemic response approaches.

(HT to @WKugelberg for the awesome annotated timeline graphs). https://twitter.com/drericding/status/1327230581143465984

7) And Swedish mortality has increased. And by a lot versus nordic neighbors.

8) Our World In Data also notes: Sweden deaths take longer to show up compared to other countries, because they tabulate the figures differently. So the "Sweden has a 2nd wave of cases but not deaths!" argument is bunk. https://ourworldindata.org/covid-sweden-death-reporting

9) EXCESS MORTALITY for Sweden versus prior years and comparison with its Nordic neighbors. Guess herd approach didn’t work out so well.

(Figure by my FAS team. HT to @euromaestro) #COVID19