Sweden’s Unique Approach to Battling COVID-19 Is Preserving Economic Freedom: Trying to Achieve a Balance Between Liberty and Safety

Daily Signal ^ | 04/22/2020 | Anthony Kim

[SeekAndFind]

In stark contrast to most other developed countries dealing with the coronavirus, Sweden has adopted what are perhaps the least restrictive “social distancing” rules in the world, permitting most economic activity to continue in the face of the pandemic.

The ongoing Swedish policy experiment of so-called “herd immunity” is quite unique. Anders Tegnell, Sweden’s chief epidemiologist and architect of the policy, explained that his country’s approach to COVID-19 is “to let the virus spread as slow as possible, while sheltering the elderly and the vulnerable until much of the population becomes naturally immune or a vaccine becomes available.”

It’s premature to judge whether Sweden’s laissez-faire approach will have benign or catastrophic health results. So far, its death rate from the disease is far lower than countries such as Italy or Spain, but higher than in neighboring Norway or Denmark.

And while the restrictions mandated by their government might be less than in most other countries, Swedes have nonetheless been urged to engage in social distancing, and they are doing so.

According to Reuters, a number of businesses have voluntarily either curtailed activities or closed completely, and a “record 36,800 people were handed their notice in March, more than 10 times the number from the same month last year.”

Sweden’s unique approach has not emerged from a vacuum. The country possesses a number of particular societal characteristics that influence its economic policies and attitudes—honesty, openness, efficiency, industriousness, and trust, among many others.

The combination of those specific attributes is certainly one of the reasons why this Nordic country has been successful in the past and continues to be resilient today.

The other notable feature of modern Swedish society that is having a fundamental influence on current policy developments is the country’s evolution in recent decades into a well-functioning, competitive free-market democracy.

[SmokingJoe]

Sanity where you least expected it. In Sweden.
Meanwhile, the far left crazies in America want o shut down Montana because people are dying in New York City.

[House Atreides]

HERD IMMUNITY = FREEDOM!

[gibsonguy]

honesty, openness, efficiency, industriousness, and trust, among many others.”

Sweden was the place where semi socialism semi worked. That was because they were a homogeneous society with a very strong work ethic. Then they turned the Government over to radical feminists who opened the gates to a bunch of raping, murdering
savages. Their virus approach is working everywhere but in the dense areas. It would have been the same here if the DNC/MSM would have allowed it.

[ifinnegan]

And they’re no worse off than lots of countries that totally shut down, or tried to.

Safer at home clearly did nothing to mitigate the outbreak.

[allendale]

Many people are dying in the short term in Sweden compared to Norway and Finland. However over the long term the mortality rates (percentage of the population dead from COVID-19) will absent a timely, effective vaccine, will be the same. However Sweden will be far better off because they will not have experienced severe economic contractions and the associated social detriment.

The rational for not doing the same in the US was not to overwhelm hospitals and the health care system. But face it. It is not clear that patients who are hospitalized have any real increased prospect of recovering compared to those who are treated as outpatients. Other than hydroxychloroquine and Zithromax, which can be prescribed early as an outpatient, the hospitals are not offering any definitive therapy that can be demonstrated to be effective. That includes respiratory treatment.

The Swedish approach IMHO was correct.

[SmokingJoe]

Sensible, balanced post.

[Lions Gate]

“The Swedish approach IMHO was correct.”

I agree completely. President Trump has been listening to clowns like Fauci and Birx (both of whom seem compromised by Bill Gates and his cohorts) who have been repeatedly wrong on almost every level.

The real CV death rate compared to those infected will probably settle in at 0.1 to 0.2% - basically that of the flu or slightly higher.

The US economy never should have been closed down without antibody testing to determine the FATALITIES AS A PERCENTAGE OF THOSE INFECTED.

[MrEdd]

Why is Sweden unique when the entirety of Africa followed the same plan with the same results?

[preacher]

l8r

[Grampa Dave]

Larry The Cable Guy: @GitRDoneLarry:

"Ya right. Well if they keep quarantining the healthy (which is the first time ever done in humanity) then we won’t have a country to make great again."

In the real world: You quarantine sick people....not well people. So how do you know...cuz you feel sick. Thanks to: Sacajaweau for this common sense reality.

Bingo! No expensive tests/hospital visits just some common sense. No edicts from power crazy governors/mayors. Just common sense.

Our economy/citizens have been brutally beaten/raped/abused with the insane/power grabbing actions of democrat elites, democrat governors/mayors and democrat mediots!

“A shutdown is a broadly destructive solution, to a problem that could have been solved with far more targeted approaches!"

Quarantines only work to keep a small amount of sick people from going out and spreading the disease!

They don’t work to keep the vast majority of healthy people locked inside.

Thanks to HotHunt for the above great visual!

If people want to stay home, let them! NO ONE wants to force them to go out!

[A_perfect_lady]

If there’s one thing I appreciate about all this, is that from this day forward, when liberals tell us that we should be more like Sweden, I’m going to steer the conversation toward this very topic and see what they say. If they say, “Well, I don’t agree with THAT,” I’ll have to point out that if Sweden is so much wiser than us, this must also have been wise, and if not...

[SeekAndFind]

RE: Quarantines only work to keep a small amount of sick people from going out and spreading the disease.

Here’s the complication when it comes to this Novel Coronavirus... a lot of spreaders are NOT SICK,i.e., asymptomatic.

That’s what happened in Italy, a land of huggers. The young, healthy ones, not knowing that they have the virus, start going near the elderly and immunocompromised ... and then you have what happened.

[SeekAndFind]

RE: Why is Sweden unique when the entirety of Africa followed the same plan with the same results?

Hmmm... I have to look deeply at the African figures. One factor to consider is they are mostly poor countries with very few testing equipment and inadequate statistical dsta. But I could be wrong.

[all the best]

Exactly. It’s called personal responsibility. If you think that you are vulnerable, then feel free to stay at home. If others choose to congregate at work, church, sports venues, etc, that is their choice.
People have become so sissified, feminized, that they demand total safety, security, comfort. Freedom is not to be considered or valued. If you are willing to sacrifice freedom for security, you deserve neither and will likely forego both.

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks for your excellent reply!

Exactly. It’s called personal responsibility. If you think that you are vulnerable, then feel free to stay at home. If others choose to congregate at work, church, sports venues, etc, that is their choice.

People have become so sissified, feminized, that they demand total safety, security, comfort. Freedom is not to be considered or valued.

If you are willing to sacrifice freedom for security, you deserve neither and will likely forego both.

[Mr. Blond]

I think Iceland had the most sensible approach. We never seem to monitor them, only the 2 extremes.