Sweden During the Pandemic

https://www.cato.org/policy-analysis/sweden-during-pandemic

by fortran77 • 3 years ago

34 21 3 years ago

vpaulus• 3 years ago

Do not forget that what Sweden took action was accommodated to the general behaviour of the Swedes. They keep a reasonable distance at all. If any restriction is only a recommendation and not a strict rule, they comply anyway. They generally have better state of health than many - even European - country.

Did Sweden act much better than other countries, and got much better outcome? Yes.

Could the same work in other countries? Most likely not, except other Nordic states.

mhb2• 3 years ago

That's pretty dismissive. The article mainly addresses the premise that Sweden's actions produced a better outcome than other countries including ones which had a predilection for social distancing. This is by no means universally conceded.

It would be nice to think that other countries could learn something after accepting that Sweden actually had a better outcome.

ghaff3• 3 years ago

I'm not sure it's really dismissive. It's more that, even given a lack of strict government policy actions, Sweden ended up having as good or relatively better outcomes than many/most other countries. But I'm not sure be more like Sweden makes a very useful playbook--except insofar as the policy recommendation is to take a few high impact actions (e.g. around nursing homes, almost certainly vaccines, etc.) and otherwise have a fairly light touch.

ghaff3• 3 years ago

The challenge is that Swedes tend to be relatively healthy, antisocial, and sensible (as suggested by the paper) isn't either very actionable or quantifiable. Though there is an implication (which is a clear agenda in this paper) that explicit government policies didn't make a whole lot of difference in this case.

lambda_garden• 3 years ago

Indeed. A question we should be asking is what the Swedish government should have done if faced by mass non-compliance

mhb2• 3 years ago

And before we ask that question we should ask how non-compliance is affected by edicts versus presentation of the costs/benefits of actions and the rationale for any suggestions.

ghaff3• 3 years ago

Even if studies like this one come from a particular political slant, it's really hard to look at the data and discern that there was some combination of specific/actionable conditions, policies, and population behaviors that could have served as magic bullets for better long-term outcomes.

mannyv• 3 years ago

Soon people will be talking about Swedish exceptionalism.

The fact is, COViD is a problem for those at high risk, and those risk factors were well known in the early days. One response could have been to make just that subset take precautions.

But for some reason the vast majority of liberal societies went all totalitarian on their people. Why that was is as interesting as how Sweden did.

undersuit3• 3 years ago

the vast majority of liberal societies went all totalitarian on their people.

No stop this nonsense. China was sealing apartments in 2020 to enforce quarantine.

The worst that happened in the west was that we couldn't get dinner and beer at one of our many corporate restaurants that willingly shut down.

throwaway5Am1k• 3 years ago

Absolutely wrong, stop trying to rewrite history. Look at what happened in Melbourne, Australia. 1 hour of state mandated "outside" time per day, restrictions on gatherings, 5KM restrictions, 9PM curfews, park and gym closures, restrictions on shopping, public transport shutdown to stop protests, get the jab or lose your job. All that to "help" us, and we're living with the consequences to this day. Groceries 50%+ in the last 3 years. House prices are off the charts. Inflation that the government will blame on Russia, COVID supply shocks, aliens, but never their actions. The policies you backed well and truly fucked us. Own up to it.

fifilura2• 3 years ago

China was sealing apartments in 2020 to enforce quarantine.

This is whataboutism.

The worst that happened in the west was that we couldn't get dinner and beer at one of our many corporate restaurants that willingly shut down.

Do you even remember 2020/2021? Schools, daycare, workplaces shut down, people not allowed to leave their apartments?

amadeuspagel• 3 years ago

My brother and father were stopped by the police when going for a walk outside together. (They had passports with them, and since they're family it was accepted.)

mensetmanusman• 3 years ago

Or the police forcing people from the healthiest possible location (beaches) to the unhealthiest possible location (apartments).

fifilura2• 3 years ago

FYI. The article author has a political agenda.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johan_Norberg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cato_Institute

(Edit, since I got downvotes. I am not saying he is wrong, but I still think the information is relevant to be aware of when reading the article. His bread and butter is not necessarily seeking the truth but to choose the narrative and facts that supports his political views. And of course getting views fornhisnarticle in a place like this is like hitting a home-run)

cjalmeida• 3 years ago

The nice thing about Nordic countries is that you got 4 of them that are quite comparable.

Denmark had a stricter approach compared to Sweden and arguably had better outcomes and faster economic recovery.

Sweden During the Pandemic

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