COVID-19—a very visible pandemic – The Lancet

August 8, 2020 steven

Johan Giesecke’s many claims lead to two concepts. First, that lockdowns were bad, with the Swedish way being the best approach to the pandemic; and second, that everyone in the world would get COVID-19 in a thinly veiled argument that herd immunity was the only way that the virus would be controlled.

During April and May, 2020, Giesecke became somewhat of a celebrity in the UK and elsewhere, giving interviews that promoted these arguments. Giesecke’s letter specifically stated that PCR tests and assumptions had shown that 20–25% of Stockholm was infected already, that serology tests were already supporting this conclusion, and that 98–99% of people infected did not know it. These ideas, espoused by Giesecke and his colleagues at the Public Health Agency of Sweden have sparked protests around the world where many raise signs calling for an approach like Sweden’s and no lock-ins.

In fact, when representative testing was published in Stockholm, the results indicated only a 7·3% infection rate,

Folkhalsomyndigheten
Första resultaten från pågående undersökning av antikroppar för COVID-19-virus.