In the aftermath of Corona 19, the number of deaths in the first half of Sweden reached the highest in 150 years.

According to the Reuters news agency on the 19th (local time), Swedish statistical authorities said the death toll in the first half was counted at 51,405.

This was the highest in 151 years since the death of 55,000,431 people due to the famine in the first half of 1869.

However, Sweden's total population was 4.1 million at the time, and now it is 13 million.

Among the deaths in the first half of this year, it was estimated that about 4,500 people were confirmed to be due to Corona 19.

In the aftermath, the number of deaths in the first half of the year increased by 10% from the last five-year average, statistics officials explained.

In particular, in April this year, the number of corona deaths soared, exceeding the average by 40%.

Sweden, unlike most European countries, has taken loose steps to respond to the coronavirus.

Instead of strict containment, voluntary measures such as social distancing were applied, and schools and businesses were not completely closed.

Norway, another Nordic country with strong containment measures, now has a cumulative corona death toll of 262.

Sweden's loose quarantine is observed to be unrelated to health authorities' obsession with population immunity.

Population immunity refers to a condition in which many individuals have immunity and thus the spread of infectious diseases is suppressed, and individuals without immunity are indirectly protected.

When the antibody retention rate reaches 60% or more, it is believed that there is a collective immunity effect, but in the case of Corona 19, no such state has been reached.

Health experts, including World Health Organization officials, argue that targeting collective immunity is in fact abandoning quarantine and cannot be a solution given the many sacrifices of vulnerable people.

However, Swedish health authorities are still in a different position and are passive about the universal wearing of masks to prevent the spread of infection.

In Sweden recently, controversy was followed when an infectious disease scholar in charge of responding to Corona 19 made a remark to the effect of taking some of the damages of the elderly for collective immunity.

According to the Daily Guardian in the UK, Swedish Public Health Commissioner Anders Tennell told an expert from the Finnish Ministry of Health and Welfare in an email in March that "one way is to keep schools open to quickly gain collective immunity."

Commissioner Tennell replied, "Wouldn't it be worth trying if it was 10%," he pointed out that the spread of Corona 19 among the elderly would decrease by 10% due to school closures.

Sweden did not actually shut down schools, and the elderly accounted for a large proportion of the corona19 deaths.

According to the international statistics website World Omometer, as of the day, there were 85,000 cumulative confirmed cases and 5,800 cumulative deaths in Sweden.

(Photo = Getty Image Korea)