sweden and coronavirus

The Swedes are doing things differently:

Sweden is taking a very different approach to Covid-19 — Quartz

The question is whether this different way of doing things is working:

Coronavirus: Has Sweden got its science right? - BBC News

This has also excited a lot of political debate.

The conservative Telegraph compares the Swedish 'success' with the UK 'failure':

So now we know: Sweden got it largely right, and the British establishment catastrophically wrong. Anders Tegnell, Stockholm’s epidemiologist-king, has pulled off a remarkable triple whammy: far fewer deaths per capita than Britain, a maintenance of basic freedoms and opportunities, including schooling, and, most strikingly, a recession less than half as severe as our own....

Sweden’s success shows the true cost of our arrogant, failed establishment

However, the New Scientist disagrees:

Those who regard the strategy as a success claim it reduced the economic impact, but it isn’t clear that it did. What is clear is that so far Sweden has had a more protracted outbreak with far more deaths per capita than its neighbours.
While it is sometimes implied that Sweden didn’t have a lockdown, it did. It was just largely voluntary, with only a few legal measures such as a ban on gatherings of more than 50 people.
“Voluntary restrictions work as well as legal ones,” says the architect of Sweden’s strategy, chief epidemiologist Anders Tegnell...
So there was a substantial voluntary lockdown in Sweden – yet it wasn’t nearly as effective in reducing the spread of the coronavirus as the compulsory lockdowns in neighbouring Denmark and Norway. Cases and deaths rose faster in Sweden and have been slower to decline.
Sweden has about 8200 confirmed cases per million people as of 12 August, compared with 1780 in Norway and 2560 in Denmark. (For the UK it is 4600 and the US 15,400.) Sweden has had 57 deaths per 100,000, compared with five in Norway and 11 in Denmark. (For the UK it is 70 and the US 50.) ...

Is Sweden's coronavirus strategy a cautionary tale or a success story? | New Scientist

As for the economy:

Sweden's GDP slumped 8.6% in Q2, more sharply than its neighbors despite its no-lockdown policy

But the whole question of whether the 'Swedish model' has worked ends up being a political debate:

Search - Foundation for Economic Education

Lockdown protesters shout 'be like Sweden' — but Swedes say they are missing the point

Lockdown supporters cannot bear the thought that Sweden has got it right

Conservative Americans see coronavirus hope in progressive Sweden - POLITICO

Responsibility of the Swedish left for Sweden’s COVID-19 tragedy | openDemocracy

And there's been a lot of 'misinformation':

Misinformation and de-contextualization: international media reporting on Sweden and COVID-19 | Globalization and Health | Full Text

So, where do we go from here?

Coronavirus Sweden: Jury out on nation’s COVID strategy

Sweden's coronavirus critics urge more caution to avoid a second wave

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