Sweden's resistance to lockdown raises questions about our own tough approach
Annabel Fenwick-Elliott | The Telegraph
Reposted on Yahoo! News
March 27, 2020

[snip]

Ever pragmatic, Sweden knows the cost of total lockdown is wildly disproportionate to the facts. True to form, Sweden is currently the only country in the Western world which appears to be handling the coronavirus with such restraint. Or at least, putting off extreme intervention for as long as possible.

"Sweden cannot take draconian measures that have a limited impact on the epidemic but knock out the functions of society," stated its public health secretary Johan Carlson last week, saying out loud what so many are thinking: That the horse has already bolted, a vaccine is probably 18 months away, the coming weeks and months will inevitably overwhelm national health systems, but that far more lives and livelihoods will be destroyed as a result of shutting entire industries than lives lost to this flu strain.

This a disease, now all-but over in the country it hit first, that has killed 25,237 people worldwide over three months. Every year, mosquitoes kill 130,000 people over that same time-frame. Recessions kill too, albeit in a longer, more drawn-out ordeal - and that’s exactly what Sweden is so wary of.

Sweden has currently recorded 3,046 cases of coronavirus; compared to 3,687 in next door Norway. Since Norway entered lockdown two weeks ago, their unemployment rate has quadrupled. In Sweden, bars and restaurants have stayed open - table service only, to limit crowding - only gatherings of more than 500 have been banned, and schools remain in tact for under the 16s. Life there remains relatively normal.