Look, I don't agree with these "open up" protesters and understand why federal/state/local governments acted as they did because elected leaders have to show like they're doing "something" to protect citizens, but... can someone explain why Sweden has had, relatively, so much success fighting this virus without taking anywhere near as drastic actions as we took...
The Predicted Coronavirus Catastrophe Hasn’t Arrived In Sweden. What’s Next?
Population of Sweden is 10 million; roughly the same population as North Carolina. Stockholm is a larger city than both Raleigh and Charlotte. Their hospitals haven't been overrun (far from it) and there is capacity available to tread the sick. I realize hindsight is 20/20 so I'm not criticizing any public official for decisions they made in the public's best interest (which, politics aside, I hope we can agree that's why decisions to 'lock down' were made), but I would also hope that as we see other countries having success at handling this virus by taking different approach that we'd be receptive to adapting our policies accordingly. That's probably naive, but...
People are also overstating the lack of actions Sweden is taking, they have done things like closed schools etc....they also push social distancing.....and have closed a few bars and clubs that were not enforcing the social distancing....so the government is strongly pushing social distancing etc.
Second since you compared them to NC as we have similar populations, NC has around 10k total cases and 330ish deaths, Sweden has over 18k cases and over 2k deaths....which per million is higher than a lot of other countries. The people are also doing a lot of things on their own regardless of the official government policies.....
But Ann Linde warns of tougher action after Stockholm pubs are shut for breaking rules
www.theguardian.com
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Many Swedes support and are complying with the policy, which contrasts with the strict mandatory lockdowns imposed in many EU countries and has
been heavily criticised by some scientists. The country’s death toll per million, while far lower than Italy’s and Spain’s, is also many times higher than those of its Nordic neighbours.
Some of the country’s leading medical professors and academics have been fiercely critical of the decision not to follow much of the rest of Europe into strict lockdown, publishing open letters and petitions calling for an urgent change of course and highlighting
a death toll which, at 2,194, is three times the per-million tally recorded in Denmark and Germany and more than six times that of Finland.
Linde said Sweden’s relatively high death toll was “certainly not part of the plan” but conceded that the exceptional number of deaths in care homes, which so far account for more than half of all the country’s deaths from the coronavirus, was “one area where we have failed”.
The government passed early binding legislation banning visits to care homes for elderly people, she said, “but still the virus got in and a lot of deaths have occurred. We don’t know why this is – perhaps because some homes did not observe regulations, perhaps because staff’s jobs were not secure so they felt they could not afford to take sick leave … We’re investigating.
There is plenty of evidence that most people are falling in line, she said,
citing a 96% fall in reservations at the country’s two most popular domestic holiday destinations after the government repeated its advice to stay at home over the Easter break. "
