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As the winter fades and the spring break in Sweden, a very responsible experiment in self-responsibility is underway. Stockholm’s waterfront restaurants and bars are filled with people who absorb themselves not only in sunlight but also in an extraordinary degree of freedom.
Along with restaurants, Swedish schools remain open to all students under the age of 16, and shops and gyms have continued to operate during the coronavirus pandemic. Borders are working. Desks are still busy in offices and meetings for up to 50 people can be held.
Sweden’s ‘light touch’ response to the emergency has sparked a fierce debate among the country’s medical and scientific community.
Opponents warn that the unorthodox approach will end in disaster, while its main backers, including one of the world’s leading epidemiologists, argue that it is a logical response to a pandemic that cannot be stopped and will be vindicated over time.
AP
Swedish state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell is behind the method in his country.
Sarah Coats Chandler, an Australian living in Sweden, has mixed views: “Overall, I have absolute anxiety about all of this because it really is an experiment,” she said.
“But still, as someone told me the other day, Swedish public health authorities are showing great courage in sticking to their reasons for going down this path, and that makes me feel better. At least they are not bowing to political pressure. “
About 1800 people died in Sweden, making it the fourteenth most affected country worldwide. Sweden’s death rate is 156.45 per million compared to 62.84 in Denmark, 28.41 in Norway and 17.69 in Finland, which have much more severe blockages. Its death toll is approximately three times the combined total of its Scandinavian neighbors.
“I think it can be argued that Sweden is worse off than comparable countries like Norway and Germany,” said Olle Häggström, professor of mathematical statistics at the University of Gothenburg.
AP
People sit at a bar in Stockholm, Sweden on Wednesday March 25, 2020. T
“Google’s mobility data … suggests that our degree of social distancing has been less, and it is quite possible that this is caused, at least in part, by our more relaxed policy, and that it contributes to a faster spread of the infection”.
While comparisons with Scandinavia are not flattering, the situation in Sweden is not as bad as Spain (446 deaths per million), Italy (398), France (310) or the United Kingdom (243).
Britain’s true number will be even worse once deaths in nursing homes and private homes are included in the official count, as is the case in Sweden. About a third of all victims in Sweden were residents of nursing homes, a result the government acknowledges has been a major containment failure and a stain on their record.
Tuesday was the worst day in the country, with 185 new deaths recorded. However, that number represents a lag from the weekend’s reports, and deputy state epidemiologist Anders Wallensten has claimed the peak may have already disappeared in Stockholm, the epicenter of the outbreak.
HENRIK MONTGOMERY / AP
Swedish citizens have been allowed to continue daily life as usual during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Wallensten told reporters on Tuesday that hospital data models and randomized tests suggested that up to a third of the capital’s population will have contracted the virus by May 1, and said the worst could have happened.
Others are not so sure. Carina King, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, said she was concerned about the bureaucracy’s approach and lack of transparency about the alleged scientists behind the plan.
“Asking questions comes from a place of concern, not criticism for the simple act of asking,” he said.
“The concept of collective immunity, which I know the government has said is not the strategy, but will be the result of the strategy, is problematic because there is not yet enough information to know that we can achieve it.”
“Saying this pandemic will only end when we get to the point of herd immunity ignores the vast amount of research being done with vaccines and better treatment. By trying to get herd immunity much faster, there may be lives that could have been saved in the long run, if we had slowed down the transmission “
He added that the World Health Organization was also not convinced that herd immunity could be achieved, citing emerging reports suggesting that the long-term impacts of the infection, such as organ damage, are not yet known.
“I hate to say ‘it’s too early to tell,’ but it really is too early to say.”
It is also too early to know whether allowing companies to remain open will soften the blow to Sweden’s economy. The government is preparing for the unemployment rate to reach 9%, an increase from 7.4% before the outbreak. Nearly 100,000 Swedes have registered as unemployed since the beginning of March.
Sweden’s strategy has been spearheaded by the well-respected public health agency Folkhälsomyndigheten and its chief epidemiologist, Anders Tegnell.
While experts are divided on the plan, many agree that the public has great faith in the agency and Tegnell, whom Häggström ventured “may currently be the most popular public figure in Sweden.”
One of the fundamental tables of Tegnell’s light approach is an assessment that Sweden’s measures will be more sustainable in the long term. Another is the belief that Swedes have great inherent confidence in their public institutions and are more likely to follow advice than other Europeans.
“Despite all of our governments yelling at us that they treat us like children and talking about the nanny state, something like this happens and suddenly everyone is demanding that the state do more,” said Coats Chandler, who has lived in Sweden for five years.
“But in reality we can all do our part and act as responsible citizens, and that is what Sweden expects of its people: to act responsibly.”
“The Swedish state, and the agencies acting on its behalf, take care of people. People are confident that if they are unemployed or need education and medical care, they will be cared for.”
“I trust that to a certain extent, but I still have doubts. And there are definitely groups of Swedes who question the approach, which is actually quite a unusual set of circumstances for Sweden.”
Professor Johan Giesecke, who first recruited Tegnell during his own time as a state epidemiologist, used a rare interview last week to argue that the Swedish people would respond better to more sensible measures. He ousted the kind of blockades imposed in Britain and Australia and warned that a second wave would be inevitable once the measures are eased.
“The Swedish government decided in early January that the measures we should take against the pandemic should be based on evidence. And when you start looking at the measures that different countries are taking, you find that very few of them have a shred of evidence base ,” he said.
Giesecke, who served as the first chief scientist at the European Center for Disease Control and has been advising the Swedish government during the pandemic, told the UnHerd website that “there is almost no science” behind border closures and closure. of schools and social distancing and said he looked forward to reviewing the course of the disease in a year.
“I think the difference between countries will be very small in the end,” he said. “I don’t think you can stop it. It’s spreading. It will roll Europe no matter what you do.”
