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Over at @thespybrief there's an interesting discussion going on as to the measures that Sweden is taking to control COVID19 and what that says about US efforts. Sweden has NOT closed schools, gyms, and many businesses. What to think? A thread.
Sweden has had ~1,500 deaths. Much more than the rest of Scandinavia, but less than Spain, France or the UK. Pulling facts from here: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-19/sweden-says-controversial-covid-19-strategy-is-proving-effective
It's plan is based on asking its citizens to take personal responsibility for social distancing. "More than half of Swedish households are single-person, making social distancing easier to carry out." This is a big advantage for reasons I'll get to below.
Sweden is already way ahead of the rest of the Europe in telework: "More people work from home than anywhere else in Europe, and everyone has access to fast Internet, which helps large chunks of the workforce stay productive away from the office."
Sweden's health care system is way better - they have not run out of PPE for front line workers, and their ICUs and emergency rooms have not been overrun.
Swedes actually follow the travel guidelines voluntarily: "Trips...to Gotland -- a popular vacation destination -- dropped by 96% over the Easter weekend...And online service Citymapper’s statistics indicate an almost 75% drop in mobility in the capital."
Officials also stress that while they haven't made social distancing laws, they still follow the rules: "“We don’t have a radically different view,” ...The government has made a series of decisions that affect the whole society. It’s a myth that life goes on as normal in Sweden.”
Back to the fact that over 50% of Swedes live in single person households - the best available studies indicate that extended contact within a household (or institution or bar) are a much bigger factor than outside crowd events . https://twitter.com/DirkSchwenk/status/1239981865659924484?s=20
BOTTOM LINE: Sweden is not an example of "no social distancing" it's an example of a country that follows rules without laws and is already pretty socially distant. It is not losing front line medical workers, either, because it has PPE.
I'm fine with the argument that we should "be like Sweden" if that means we pass universal health care and take public health matters seriously.
Worth noting: Sweden's excellent educational system and early, clear recommendations to stop the spread were also effective. (I'm for that). In non-first language communities, the results were worse. https://euobserver.com/tickers/148062
Taking a glance at Sweden's testing regimes. Per capita, ... By March 17th, Sweden had carried out 1,412.8 tests per million people living in the country, putting it slightly behind Italy (2,514), but ahead of Denmark (1,314.5), the UK (749.1) and the US (125.4) for example.
Sourcing on Sweden testing: https://www.thelocal.se/20200320/fact-check-has-sweden-stopped-testing-people-for-the-coronavirus
