Posted on 04/08/2020 7:30:34 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Sweden's Foreign Minister Ann Linde on Wednesday hit back at U.S. President Donald Trump's criticism of the Swedish approach to fighting the spread of the coronavirus, saying he was wrong to claim authorities were trying to achieve "herd immunity".
Sweden is widely seen as taking a more low-key approach in its attempts to stop the spread of the disease. It's kept primary and secondary schools open, for example and hasn't closed its borders or forced people to stay indoors.
Speaking on TV4, Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde said Trump's comments were "factually wrong".
"We do not have a strategy that aims at herd immunity at all," Linde said.
Herd immunity involves isolating vulnerable groups, but allowing large numbers of the population to become ill and develop immunity to a disease, limiting the need to adopt the kind of drastic lock-downs in place across much of Europe and the rest of the world that have hit economic activity hard.
Linde said that Sweden had adopted a number of tough measures -- closing homes for elderly to visitors and holding higher education classes on line.
"But on the other hand we don't have that total lock-down," she said. "That means that some countries think we are not doing anything, but we are doing what is right for Sweden."
At a media conference on Tuesday, Trump said that if the United States had not taken strict social distancing measures, then the country would have suffered more deaths.
"They talk about Sweden, but Sweden is suffering very greatly," Trump told reporters.
He said that most countries had adopted the same approach as the United States.
"If we didn't do it that way, we would have lost hundreds of thousands of more people," Trump said.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
"We are doing roughly what most other countries are doing, but we are doing it in a different way. No lock-down and we rely very much on people taking responsibility themselves," she added.
I wonder how long it took Reuters to put a negative spin on Trump’s statements? A millisecond?
Actually going past that, at the same time - the lefties are screaming at Trump for MORE shutdown.
Exactly what Trump should be doing, instead of criticizing them.
“We are doing roughly what most other countries are doing, but we are doing it in a different way. No lock-down and we rely very much on people taking responsibility themselves,” she added. “
Unfortunately, for this kind of crisis, and what is good and not good personal behavior, I think the U.S. population as a whole would not have behaved as well as the Swedes, in taking individual responsibility themselves, minus the “lock downs”.
I am not claiming the Swedes approach is perfect (none are), but, as an individual and not enjoying herd mentality, I’d prefer their approach.
Trump makes it easy for them by carelessly repeating or paraphrasing what he hears on Hannity and Ingraham.
“ Exactly what Trump should be doing, instead of criticizing them.“
You really think the teachers unions would have let schools remain open? They were among the first to close up.
I went to Norway a few years back and walking through Oslo I took notice of the fact there weren’t a lot of overweight people. I think in general the Scandinavian countries have a much better overall diet than we do.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-04/sweden-girds-for-thousands-of-deaths-amid-laxer-virus-response
“I think in general the Scandinavian countries have a much better overall diet than we do.”
For the most part they’re all homogeneous countries and share the same diets (and portions.)
they are much more active.
Netflix have several shows origniating in Norway, Denmark and Sweden
Very interesting.
It’s pathetic that Trump is criticizing the country who is not taking a totalitarian approach. Trump’s performance as President has been getting worse.
Hannity throws out red meat for ratings, but I think he turns his brain off half the time when he's repeating his mindless phrases.
Either that, or the guy is a bag of hammers.
Hey Troll take the day off.
I completely agree.
You're putting that hole in your face before your highly incapable brain - once again.
Because of their idiotic policy, the kill-rate in Sweden is around 8%. Ours is around 2%.
POTUS is smart - FluBros™, like you, are dumb. If we listened jackass FluBros™, our medical facilities would be completely overrun right now.
Shut up.
Yeah but if he admitted Sweden may have a good alternative he’d have to admit maybe the doctors on the dais could be overreacting
Folks. we’re all in on mitigation followed by federal lockdown followed by arrest and shaming of the refuseniks as the one size fits all answer to everything.
It’s ok Mr President. The fog of war is thick. You’re handling this battle so far.
Norway 93 deaths (12.73 deaths/million)
Finland 40 deaths (6.14 deaths/million)
Ya think Sweden is doing a bang up job?
USA 36 deaths/million
Spain 295; France 158; Italy 283; UK 90.7
https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus#confirmed-covid-19-deaths-by-country
RE: Sweden Girds for Thousands of Deaths Amid Laxer Virus Policy (Bloomberg)
Will stricter policies prevent thousands of deaths?
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