Denmark, Norway and Finland kept their culture intact during the period as well as Sweden did.
Sweden didn’t impose a lockdown, but its economy is just as bad as its neighborsSweden can be easily compared to Denmark+Norway(minus Greenland) -- similar in area, population (to the two combined) and density (to the two combined minus Greenland).
...pitted Sweden against Denmark, noting they speak near-identical languages and share a broadly similar culture and demographic, yet Denmark imposed one of the most aggressive lockdowns globally.
In both countries, the unemployment rate rose 2 percentage points (though Sweden has one extra month of data) and the consumer confidence numbers plunged in both, he said.
Sweden’s central bank expects its economy to contract by 4.5 percent this year, a revision from a previously expected gain of 1.3 percent. The unemployment rate jumped to 9 percent in May from 7.1 percent in March. “The overall damage to the economy means the recovery will be protracted, with unemployment remaining elevated,” Oxford Economics concluded in a recent research note.
This is more or less how damage caused by the pandemic has played out in Denmark, where the central bank expects that the economy will shrink 4.1 percent this year, and where joblessness has edged up to 5.6 percent in May from 4.1 percent in March.
In short, Sweden suffered a vastly higher death rate while failing to collect on the expected economic gains.
Yet Sweden has multiples more deaths per million and its economy was as badly hit
I think it is good that the Swedish government tried this - as it is a perfect experiment to compare the effectiveness of a lockdown or its uneffectiveness. So far it looks like the lockdown made sense. I would hold off until 2022 when the epidemic is weakened to make a final call
People were still allowed to live their lives.
That has value.
People were allowed to keep their businesses open.
That has value.
We are allowed to drive cars in the US, even though it kills tens of thousands per year.
That has value.
We are allowed to own guns in the US, even though thousands are killed every year in gun violence.
That has value.
Life is risk. A life lived in fear is a life half lived.