Being outside isn't necessarily dangerous if you are maintaining safe distances. What continues transmission, more than anything these days, are infection chains that spread through families, at healthcare facilities, and at other essential services that remain open and include person contact or item contact.

Of course, the degree to which people take social distancing seriously impacts the R of contagion, but as the number of cases increase, so do the percentage of people that take it more seriously.

I agree. Where I live, social groups and families have continued to meet in person without regard to spreading the illness. My state is seeing new case counts flatten but my specific county is still gaining new cases at a higher rate than the rest of the region. It’s hard to not feel a little frustrated with these folks.

The commonality is that people care about their own lives. Not about old people in nursing homes dying. Everyone in Sweden knows that our numbers are atrocious and that many more are dying here than in neighboring countries. Yet the government's soft strategy has massive support and almost no one wants to see stricter measures like school lock downs or closed restaurants.

I think it's very hard to say who is right and who is wrong here. Even if a lock down saves lives, it affects so many negatively. Especially kids who lose weeks of months of schooling who they will have a hard time getting back.

> Especially kids who lose weeks of months of schooling who they will have a hard time getting back.

I really don’t get the thing with compulsory schooling - it’s not if they will never get educational instruction in their lives

>Yet, our citizens are out and about intentionally going against guidelines.

People don't like being under house arrest? What a surprise!

>Can we really compare conscientious Swedes with bold Brits or brash Americans

Of course we can. Quit giving them credit as more moral and complaint when not as much has been asked of them.