Mos them for the coronavirus: Why Greece cannot become Sweden and why we must avoid the lockdown | HELLAS

Elias Mosialos explains in a post the differences that exist in the socio-economic life between Greece and Sweden, listing the reasons why our country cannot follow the same tactics as the Scandinavian country in handling the coronavirus.

As the LSE professor of health policy states in his post on his personal Facebook account, some characteristics of Sweden do not apply to Greece. According to her, in Sweden most of the population lives alone, while the elderly have no contact with their children and grandchildren, as they do not live in the same house.

According to Mosialos, in the Scandinavian country, citizens prefer to travel by bicycle and avoid the use of MMM.

Elias Mosialos’ publication:

What to do: can we become Sweden?

Sweden was one of the countries that did not carry out a blockade. Therefore, Sweden was considered by many to be like Greece after the blockade was lifted. But it was not like that. Sweden did not lock in because differences in its social and economic structure compared to other countries led it to choose a different stance and ultimately manage the pandemic differently.

What are the differences between Sweden and Greece that we should take into account when analyzing pandemic management measures?

First of all, the two countries have different social structures.

• More than 50% of the population lives alone in Sweden, while the corresponding percentage in Greece is almost 30%.
• About 50% of families in Sweden are single parents, a multiple of 8% that applies to Greece.
• Older people in Sweden do not live with their children and grandchildren.

Why is this important?

Because studies on the spread of the coronavirus have shown that most of the spread occurs within families.

So in Sweden they already had the social segregation of the elderly that we don’t have. But in addition to the different structure of the Swedish family, they had

• 50% of employees in March teleworking
• large percentage of employees who went to work by bicycle or on foot
• citizens who had the same trust in the institutions
• olites who followed almost all the instructions of the experts

Sweden’s low population density is also worth considering (25 inhabitants per square kilometer in Sweden versus 81 inhabitants per square kilometer in Greece).

In Sweden, however, they had a worse economic impact than their neighbors. Sweden’s gross domestic product (GDP) fell 8.6% in the second quarter of the year, according to the statistical office. The fall was stronger than that of its neighbors: Denmark fell 7.4% and Finland fell 3.2%. Statistics show that Norway also surpassed Sweden. Deaths in Sweden were also higher than in Denmark and Norway.

But let me remind you here too that Sweden has one of the best public health systems in the world and a serious hospital infrastructure. With more than double the per capita expenditure compared to Greece on health services, if we compare the relative purchasing power parity.

So if we had the structure of Swedish society, the healthcare system, the telecommuting opportunities they have, the density of their population and we accept the number of victims they have from the pandemic, we could follow their example.

But what is the difficulty we have now?

In my opinion, we should never make a new blockade, because the effects on the health of citizens who suffer from chronic diseases, but also the effects on the economy, will be disproportionate to the benefit.

You know I was the first to support the closure in early Greece. We needed time to reorganize the health system and get protective equipment and masks. We needed time to prepare for the next season. We also needed to improve transportation, expand telecommuting, and make changes to the curriculum. Be able to perform many diagnostic tests.

But also, just ten days after the blockade was imposed, I was in favor of lifting it, and I spoke of gradual de-escalation measures in a short time. Greece as we know it had one of the shortest lockdowns because it did it early.

Now we must all be responsible. Coordinated actions of the State with political parties, social actors and citizens are needed. But an interdisciplinary approach to the problem is also needed.

Furthermore, the behavior of public figures must be similar to that required by the state for citizens. In other words, it is imperative to have a horizontal implementation of the measures, without exceptions. And you also need a national plan and understanding.

In this way we will avoid the second blockage. Nor by transferring responsibilities from the State to citizens and from citizens to the State. Nor does it seek to copy countries like Sweden, without being Swedish or without having the infrastructure of Sweden.