Stockholm — As many nations introduced strict lockdowns as the coronavirus pandemic took hold earlier this year, Sweden took a totally different approach. You might call it lockdown-lite.
The public health authorities banned gatherings of over 50 people, closed high schools and universities, and advised people to maintain a safe distance. But stores and restaurants have remained open throughout the pandemic, as have elementary and middle schools.
The Swedish authorities argued this was a sustainable plan, one the public would back even if the measures had to stay in place for many months. In the long term, they believed it would protect both lives and the economy.
But the death toll from Sweden’s outbreak is now the fifth-worst in the world, per capita. The country’s mortality rate from the coronavirus is now 30% higher than that of the United States when adjusted for population size.
CBS News correspondent Elizabeth Palmer went to Stockholm and found that, despite the worrying statistics, most Swedes still back the public health agency’s approach.
“I think other people are taking on the duty of social distance, so I’m fine,” Stockholm resident Mia Soderberg said. “I’m satisfied, Array … because I think other people are in better mental shape, because we were going out.”
The economy, however, has still taken a serious hit, and many countries now see Sweden as a cautionary tale. Its closest neighbors, Denmark and Norway, have put strict limitations on travelers coming from Sweden.
Farmers who spoke to Palmer on the streets said they were following government guidelines, seeking to distance themselves socially and paintings from their home. But facial covers are still a rarity. Taking a ride on the Stockholm subway, Palmer is the only one in the exercise who wears a mask.
The Swedish government now admits that procedures in the centres at the time of the outbreak of the pandemic were inadequate. As far as Helen Gluckman is concerned, that’s a euphemism. His 80-year-old father Jan died in a space in April.
Towards the end, “I shor my hand when I spoke to him,” he told CBS News. “I listened.
When Jan tested positive for COVID-19, the nursing home where he lived sent him to the hospital. Staff stopped tracking his oxygen grades and gave him morphine. He died in a matter of days.
“They didn’t have oxygen in the home, so they couldn’t do anything or do nothing, so I think it’s better [for them] not to know how bad their condition is,” her daughter said.
“They gave him morphine, which kills a user after a while,” Gluckman said, adding that if he had known at the time that “morphine will kill you, because it takes your breath away,” He would never have accepted it.
When asked how fitness professionals can simply make such decisions, necessarily calling not to treat a patient, Gluckman said the Stockholm government seemed from the beginning not to treat the elderly, perhaps to keep extensive care beds available.
She said she doubted that she had “lost confidence” in controlling the epidemic through the government and public fitness authorities.
With the start of summer, the Swedish epidemic was still slowed. From a peak of more than one hundred deaths consistent with the day, the country now reports a daily number of deaths among adolescents.
But in a few months, at the end of the northern summer, other people will re-enter, where the virus can explode smoothly again.
Swedish scientists have stricter and more data-driven measures.
However, national director of public health, Karin Tegmark Wisell, told Palmer that, in some other possible outbreak of infections in the fall, Swedish officials would “keep their existing recommendations” and continue to review the progress of the investigation.
Palmer asked Stockholm resident Soderberg to stop by to buy groceries if he liked it.
“I accept as true with them,” she says. I said yes.”
“Even now that you see the mortality rate?” Palmer asked. “It’s a little irrational if you’ll forgive me for saying it.”
“Yes,” Soderberg said, “but you also have to look at where the mortality statistics come from,” he added, referring to the fact that at least some of the deaths occurred in nursing homes.
She believes Swedes are trying to help ease the crisis by obeying government guidance.
“That’s how we choose to take care of him,” he said. “We have made wonderful differences in the way we live.”
At the moment, there’s no indication that the Swedish authorities about to change tack.
At a press conference, Palmer asked one of Sweden’s public fitness directors, Karin Tegmark Wissell, what the plan is to avoid a peak moment this fall.
“The measures we have taken have been focused on a long term approach,” she said. “We will keep up our [current] recommendations and restrictions… and keep on studying the new literature.”
Dr. Hokan Kalzen treats COVID patients in the ICU ward of Stockholm’s Sodertatlje Hospital. From 77 cases at the peak of the pandemic, he is relieved there are now only four left on the ward.
Asked why so many Swedes still have faith in the authorities’ light touch when the numbers look so bad on paper, he suggested they may be proven right in the end.
“When countries that had a complete lockdown and low numbers try to open up, many of them, they face outbreaks, and they will be terrified for a long, long time.”
Also, Swedes have deep-rooted loyalty to their government.
“Maybe it’s because we think we’re getting more for our taxes than other people in other countries,” he said. “So we still have some faith.”
But the layer maintenance alerts of Sweden Nele Brusselaers, epidemiologist at the medical studies institute of the karolinska Institute of world-renowned in Stockholm.
“If there is a country in Europe where there will be a peak moment, it will probably be Sweden, because they still don’t do much to avoid it,” he said.
Last month, the Swedish Prime Minister conducted an investigation into the government’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak.
Recent surveys have shown that public confidence is declining. In a survey conducted through Sweden’s Civil Contingency Agency on 6 July, 45% of respondents said they did not accept the authorities’ control of the coronavirus epidemic as a truth.