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The Detail is a daily news podcast produced for RNZ by Press room and is posted on Stuff with permission. Click on this link to subscribe to the podcast.
Another deadly wave of coronavirus is spreading across Europe, leading to strict closures and states of emergency. But Sweden sticks to its non-blocking strategy of voluntary social distancing.
The detail See why millions of Swedes are behind the government’s liberal approach, when the pandemic has killed thousands of people there.
Martin von Krogh / Getty Images
People line up without social distancing in front of a restaurant in Gotland, Sweden, in July. Sweden largely avoided imposing strict lockdown rules on its citizens in response to the coronavirus.
University of Auckland epidemiologist Professor Rod Jackson says Sweden has failed.
READ MORE:
* Coronavirus: Is It Time We Give Up?
* Covid-19: Should New Zealand Follow Sweden’s Path?
* Coronavirus: the death toll from Covid-19 increases in Sweden
* Coronavirus: scientists from Sweden and Great Britain fight over who best faced Covid-19
“It’s one of the worst outcomes you can imagine. They should have had zero deaths, and yet they have 6,000 deaths. We have 24 deaths; we have much more poverty in this country; we don’t have many homes where people live alone and yet , we have succeeded where they failed. “
Presenter Sharon Brettkelly also speaks with Rachel Irwin, a researcher in ethnology in the Department of Cultural Arts and Sciences at Lund University. He has studied international media coverage of the Swedish situation and says that some of the reports on topics such as herd immunity are dangerous.
“It just became a monster where you see people in different countries, the United States and the United Kingdom, saying, ‘Well, Sweden didn’t do anything, they had a herd immunity strategy, so we should do that too.’ .. and this is a very, very dangerous misinterpretation. “
Jonas Ekstromer / TT News Agency via AP
Swedish Health and Social Affairs Minister Lena Hallengren, center, watches health worker Gun Bjorling administer a Covid-19 test at a driving test station in Alvsjo, Stockholm (file image).
Irwin says that herd immunity is not an official strategy of the Swedish government and that the country remained ‘open’ in part because mandatory lockdown measures applied in other countries “are not possible under Swedish law, at least not during times of peace”.
Despite the liberal and non-blocking approach, Irwin says her life is far from normal: she works from home or an office where she is the only worker, she bikes to work instead of using public transportation, she lives in a small community and buy essentials at a farm store.
Not everyone sticks to social distancing, Irwin says. Public meetings are restricted to a maximum of 50 people, but “the idea is that people also accept that as a limit in their private meetings.”
“Legally speaking, I could have a party in my apartment for 50 people or more, but I wouldn’t because my neighbors would never speak to me again.”
She says the increase in Covid cases since the northern hemisphere summer is due to complacency.
“People are loosening up a bit more, but I think the fact that we’re starting to see this increase in cases is also a reminder to people that, oh wait, we can’t loosen up.”
In today’s episode, Irwin goes over the myths and misconceptions of the Swedish strategy, which many New Zealanders have been urging our government to follow.
