3,500 crown kills and surge: Sweden’s special path in crossfire

3,500 kills in the trend trend: a sharp rise: Sweden’s special form in crossfire

Sweden and Denmark announce their daily crown numbers at 2 p.m. However, the similarities of Scandinavian neighbors in the Corona crisis also end there.

While the Danes have handled the new type of corona virus with strict measures like almost no other country in Europe, the Swedes are much worse with their more liberal strategy. And on the Danish side of the Øresund bridge, one already wonders: have the Swedes gone crazy, or does their special path turn out to be brilliant in the end?

A look at the numbers for the past few days shows the differences between the two countries that are otherwise closely related: on Thursday, the Swedes reported 69 new deaths from Covid 19 and 673 new infections, while the Danes only had four more deaths and 46 new confirmed cases were. On Wednesday 147 people were killed in Sweden, in Denmark there were only six.

In total, Sweden has more than 28,600 infections and 3,500 deaths, compared to around 10,700 illnesses and almost 540 deaths in Denmark, where about half the people live.

Sweden also stands out with the highest numbers compared to the rest of Scandinavia. However, the country of Prime Minister Stefan Löfven and state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell sticks to their strategy. Tegnell recently assured that the situation in the country is stable. Although he admitted: “It is terribly sad that so many people in Sweden continue to die of this disease.”

Unlike the rest of Europe, Sweden has decided not to restrict much of public life in the fight against the coronavirus. Schools, shops and restaurants, which have reopened or are gradually reopening in Denmark, remained open the entire time. However, Swedes are also concerned with slowing the spread of the crown to avoid deaths and not overload the health system. “Sweden pursues the same goals as all other countries: saving lives and protecting public health,” Foreign Minister Ann Linde said on Twitter again on Wednesday.

However, the measures taken in Sweden have been much more moderate than elsewhere: meetings with more than 50 participants are prohibited, only secondary schools and universities are closed. Otherwise, the government and authorities mainly appeal to the common sense and common sense of their citizens. They are asked to stay away and to stay home with symptoms, especially some scientists view it skeptically.

“The entire strategy of the Swedish health authority is based on a life-threatening concept: stay home if you feel sick,” Stockholm virologist Lena Einhorn criticized in SVT in mid-April. If you ask the sick to stay home, then you don’t have a large proportion of the infected in sight, which means the elderly are at risk of living, Einhorn said.

With her criticism of the special route, she is not alone, as several opinions from Swedish scientists show. As early as April, 22 investigators stated that the actions of the health agency in the newspaper “Dagens Nyheter” had failed. Others, however, continue to firmly believe in the anti-authoritarian and more liberal approach. This goes so far that some Swedes wear T-shirts with portraits of Tegnell or get tattoos with their resemblance. Even the “Crown Patriots” and “Health Nationalism” are mentioned in the country’s main newspapers.

However, the situation among older Swedes, whom Einhorn also referred to, poses a considerable problem: almost 90 percent of all Swedish crown deaths were over the age of 70. The government has urged this main risk group to avoid social contacts, and visits to nursing homes have also been prohibited since April 1. However, these households have been particularly affected by the pandemic, whether in the capital, Stockholm or in other parts of the country: approximately every two Covid 19 deaths in the country to date have been residents.

But there are also positive developments: the number of reproductions was almost continuously below 1.0 in the second half of April. This means that each infected person infects less than another person on average. The number of new intensive care patients decreases more or less regularly. And Stockholm is also discussing a possible approach to collective immunity, which could soon occur in the city as a consequence of the special route.

However, 22 researchers said in a new opinion Thursday that it was “unrealistic and dangerous” to trust this strategy. “Instead of letting people die, we must keep people alive until effective treatments and vaccines can be used.”

It cannot be estimated whether the Swedish idiosyncratic crown strategy will work in the end, even several months after the pandemic began. “We cannot draw conclusions before it ends,” Tegnell said in a report released by the Danish radio station DR on Tuesday. Until then, according to Tegnell, it will likely be at least a year. (aeg / sda / dpa)