Man behind Sweden’s controversial virus strategy admits mistakes

Re:Man behind Sweden’s controversial virus strategy admits m... by dijit on Wednesday June 03, 2020 @04:21AM (#23401204)

I’ve been outspokenly critical of Sweden’s approach on more than one occasion. I live in Malmö in the southern region of Sweden- where COVID-19 deaths were 3 weeks behind Stockholm.

The situation here was, for lack of a better term, inconsistent.

There are people locking down, and some restaurants are closing early. There Are people wearing masks- but in far greater numbers there are huge congregations of people. Masses of people, herding together in bars at night shoulder-to-shoulder[0].

People aren’t taking it seriously, because “the rest of the world is overreacting and as long as we follow the rules we’ll be safe” but people fall right back to not following the rules.

It seems like it only takes a few people to not follow the rules and then everyone around them forgets. Forgets about distancing. Forgets about not touching the face. Forget that there’s even a pandemic at all.

Anders arrogantly believed that swedes follow the rules and that it would save us. And frankly we’re fairing better than the UK- though the population density is far lower, and there’s more single-person households than anywhere else in Europe.

I just don’t think there’s a workable argument for why it was a good idea. Except for that we were unable and wanted to make it look like it was part of the plan.

[0]: Sorry for the quality. https://i.imgur.com/LVspmHs.jpg

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Re:Man behind Sweden’s controversial virus strategy admits m... by yaris on Wednesday June 03, 2020 @06:40AM (#23401945)

Well, I live in Stockholm and here is what I see: during the first few weeks (maybe a month) people really followed the rules. There were significantly fewer cars on roads, some parts of the city looked as if completely abandoned etc. But then the weather's become better, people have got tired of restrictions - and now it is back to usual (I don't dare say "normal"). But people are still much more careful than they were before COVID. What makes me feel good about Tegnell is that schools were not forcefully closed, otherwise economic hit would be much bigger.

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Re:Man behind Sweden’s controversial virus strategy admits m... by dijit on Wednesday June 03, 2020 @06:49AM (#23401995)

That could be because Stockholm was hit so much harder than the Skane region in its entirety. People here might have thought it was "far off" and put it out of mind.

I don't mean to imply there has been no change, lots of businesses are requiring people to work from home, some restaurants wont let you sit indoors. There are stickers on the floor in ICA indicating where you can queue, and plexiglass around the cashiers.

However, it's very surface level in a lot of cases, people are still going to tightly packed bars, massing in large numbers in the parks, going for walks through crowded shopping streets. Gyms are open and I'm not sure that's the best idea in the world (COVID being transmitted easiest in a still air enclosed environment with lots of people exhaling forcefully).

But, I digress. I think when Swedes talk to me about Sweden's response to COVID they talk from a stockholmers mindset. But I am derided by Swedish friends in Malmo for avoiding contact as much as humanly possible.. Many of whom keep requesting that I join them in the Gym. Which seems like a really stupid idea to me.

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