Which country? Sweden? Or the UK?
If you are referring to the UK then we have a greatly decreased number of cases and deaths because of the measures which were put in place (e.g. distancing) not because the virus . This is very simple and agreed on by most scientists on both sides of the "lockdown" / "best approach" (e.g. Tegnell and Sridhar are very much polar opposites in their favoured approach to dealing with the virus but both agree on the role "distancing" plays in slowing the spread of the virus).
Look at the number of US states which introduced restrictions, began to release them, and are now seeing a rise in cases. There are very clear reasons for this, it is basic stuff.
The UK, like much of Europe, has for months had restrictions in place which have meant the number of contacts between people has been dramatically decreased and thus the virus cannot spread as easily and cases come down.
"Herd immunity" I hear people say, along with "T-cells". Well, herd immunity would be another reason that cases would drop. Are we there yet? No one knows but we will begin to find out as and when society returns to 'normal' functions. I also hear people saying shops and pubs are open and we are seeing no rise in cases. The levels of mixing and interactions of people is still no where near 'normal' levels and only when it is and we see no rise in cases can we consider there may herd immunity. There was never going to be a significant rise in cases from a few thousand people at a beach or an outdoor protest yet those on one side of the debate wanted to push the idea that this would begin a "2nd wave" while those on the other side used the absence of an increase in cases as support for their argument that there wouldn't be a "2nd wave". Both positions born out of dogma without recourse to logical thinking. Completely ridiculous.
Dr John Campbell has a YouTube channel which is very informative and approaches things from a scientific perspective. I was hoping that the UnHerd interviews would do the same when I started watching those a few months ago but sadly they seemed to have been dominated with guests on one side of the debate. Anyway, Dr Campbell's latest video (see link below) covers a recent publication in Nature which looks at T-cells and immunity. Without going into the details there is one very important quote:
"understanding pre-existing T-cell immunity in the general population is of paramount importance for the management of the current Covid-19 pandemic"
Absolutely! Current studies while important and investigating our fundamental understanding say nothing about the applicability to the situation amongst the general population. I have no idea how easy it is to test for this in the general population compared with antibody testing (which can be complex for various reasons) but that is likely the only way to get some idea about how much of the population is still susceptible to the virus.
Borolad: "Those with covid specific T cell response are 3 times the number of those those with antibodies".
I'd be interested in seeing a link to that study if you have it, it is a very interesting area and it would be great if there were far fewer susceptible individuals than we think. That would mean we'd be able to get back to normal faster/more easily. I'd not have to work stupid hours, I'd be able to get along to football training, and I'd be able to meet more friends/workmates down the pub. Sadly, I still don't see data/evidence that suggests we're near herd immunity in the UK. W
Spain are seeing a rise in cases (early days but the trend is clear) as they relax restrictions and while I hope this is due to increased testing (I cannot comment on testing levels there) Occam's razor might suggest that it is due to the relaxing of restrictions leading to more contacts between people. This in turn is leading to the virus spreading again. And that can only happen if there is not herd immunity.
Dr John Campbell video:
A fascinating video. It's great when complex science is explained clearly and simply like this.