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The King of Sweden, Carl XVI Gustaf, yesterday ended a debate that began with the pandemic.
Would Sweden be correct to go against the world by not adopting containment rules, not determining the closure of the economy at any time and not even recommending to the population the use of masks as a way to combat the spread of the coronavirus?
“I think we have failed,” declared Carl XVI Gustaf yesterday on national television. “We have a large number of dead and this is terrible,” lamented the king.
Unlike most countries in the world, since the beginning of the pandemic, the Swedish government has limited itself to recommending that citizens wash their hands frequently and keep their distance in shops, bars, schools and restaurants, which they have been open for most of the year. The use of masks was recommended only within hospitals.
The Swedish strategy was based on two premises: 1) that citizens would be responsible enough to take care of themselves without the state having to force them to do or stop doing anything; and 2) that the unavoidable contact of a part of the population with the virus would gradually reduce the number of hospitalizations and deaths, since it would also increase the number of people naturally protected from the infection, the so-called “theory of herd immunity”. “.
Due to herd immunity, proponents of the strategy, such as epidemiologist Anders Tegnell, said that the number of Covid-19 cases in the country would decrease from September relative to that of neighboring Finland and Norway, who joined the confinement.
The exact opposite happened: Sweden recorded more than 1,700 deaths from Covid last month, while Finland and Norway, with half the population of Sweden, each had around 100 deaths from the disease.
Cities like the capital Stockholm already suffer from a shortage of ICU beds, despite the launch of an emergency government plan to expand care: Finland and Norway offered help to their neighbors.
In Brazil, critics of the policy of social isolation have always used the Swedish example to say that it would ruin the economy, although the Swedish authorities have never used this argument to explain the chosen strategy (the main justification has always been concern for health from the country). including the increased risks of depression and suicide that confinement could cause).
All that can be said so far about the economy is:
Brazil’s GDP in the second quarter of 2020 fell 11.4% compared to the same period last year.
Sweden’s GDP in the second quarter of 2020 (measured like this) fell 8.6% compared to the same period last year.
The fall, although less than the Brazilian one, was considered historic in the Nordic country, which already foresees a 10% unemployment at the beginning of the year.
But what the king lamented on national television were the deaths and overflowing beds in the ICU – that was Sweden’s failure.
