I understand where you're coming at this on the mental health issues, but comparisons to Sweden need a little bit more context.

More generally, the premise that "prevention isn't better than cure" needs discussion. https://twitter.com/philthrill69/status/1245999568438919168

It's true that Sweden hasn't had any lockdown in place. In fact, up until last weekend all the nightclubs in Stockholm were open and packed.

Ok a) what factors allowed Sweden to do this but not Ireland b) Is it actually working out for Sweden?

1. Population density.

There's 70 people per square kilometer in Ireland.
There's 25 people per square kilometer in Sweden.

We're a smaller, more densely populated country. Both in theory and practice, the more people living near each other, the easier it is to spread it.

2. How we live.

23.5% Irish households consist of one person living alone compared to 52% of Swedish households

Ireland has highest rate of couples with young children in Europe (28%). Sweden has one of lowest (19.5%).

We tend to live with other people here (easier to spread)

3. How we work.

Almost 66% of Swedish people work remotely from home at least a couple days of the week. Ireland is languishing at around 8.5% who routinely work from home some part of the week.

(This is something Irish society needs to look at longer term)

Sweden is less densely populated, with a very different society to ours in terms of how they live and work. They have far better *starting conditions* to mitigate the spread of an epidemic than we do in Ireland.

But - is it even working for them?

Sweden: 6,443 cases, 373 dead, mortality rate 5.79%
Ireland: 4,604 cases, 137 dead, mortality rate 2.98%

They've 2x our population but we've conducted almost exactly 2x the number of tests per capita, so we have higher infection rates and lower mortality rates.

Comparing them to Ireland isn't helpful though.

Sweden: 6,443 cases, 373 dead, mortality rate 5.79%
Norway: 5,550, 102 dead, mortality rate 1.12%

Norway are also blessed with good starting conditions (low population density) and are objectively doing far better than Sweden.

Norwegian Government already publicly came out and said they'll try ease some measures at Easter but have firmly extended some of their other measures until June (mass gatherings, festivals, pubs all banned until June) because, in their view, prevention is better than the cure.

I understand your concern over suicide and mental health.

There's plenty of evidence that both suicide rates and mental health issues rise dramatically during pandemics. So does teenage pregnancy, alcohol abuse and domestic violence.

However, the idea that we should abandon strict measures and let coronavirus run riot through Ireland doesn't sound to me like the solution.

Any mental health issues prevented by easing a lockdown will be exponentially outweighed by mental health issues suffered by the bereaved.

What we need to do is keep on top of hand washing (forever preferably) and self-isolation until our experts say otherwise.

Today's increase of 7.9% was genuinely great but it's just one day. We should aim to push this curve all the way down under 4% by next weekend.

The argument that Italy and Spain's numbers are still awful is only true if you look at the death tolls.

Death toll are last thing to decrease because v. sick people can battle for weeks in ICU.

Italy, avg. daily increase pre-lockdown: +29.7%
Italy, daily increase now: +4.1%

If you look at ICU capacity - Ireland are sandwiched between 2 countries on the list for ICU beds per capita.

UK: 4,313 dead, mortality rate 10.29%
Ireland: 137 dead, mortality rate 2.98%
Holland: 1,651 dead, mortality rate 9.93%

If we relax this, we end up like that too.

There's lots all of us can do in terms of our own mental health and people we care about.

Exercise. Go for plenty of walks daily. Call friends and family.

Social distancing =/= Social isolation. We can all get through this together.