A leading company focused on virtual transformation.
In February, the month after the coronavirus observed in China, and with only forty-five cases in Europe, the Swedish government thought the virus would not be a big problem.
Johan Carlsson, director general of the Swedish Agency for Public Health, told Radio Sweden: “I think we are very convinced that we could involve this disease. We have some other cases, of course, but we don’t expect a primary epidemic.” Training
“I’m well prepared, ” he said.
Later, in April, with nearly 1,000 deaths a day in Italy, Anders Tegnell, Sweden’s leading epidemiologist, told the journal Nature that “closing borders, in my opinion, is ridiculous.”
The government’s plan aimed at long-term objectives: the concept that countries cannot remain stranded indefinitely. The most relaxed Swedish lock. They hoped that “collective immunity” would stop the spread of infections. Initially, the maximum Swedes agreed with the plan.
Those were wrong.
In the weeks that followed, the death toll increased. Sweden’s mortality rate is higher than one in the world, almost equivalent to that of Italy.
Sweden’s national consensus is being tested lately as countries quietly reopen regulations that, ironically, make Sweden look a lot like them. Most of them reached this level with fewer deaths.
Other European countries, in addition to Sweden’s neighbours, are increasingly allowing each other.
But many treat Sweden as a hygiene problem, preventing Swedes from entering or forcing them to be quarantined (even though those restrictions are loosening).
“Everywhere is reopening now and we are on the same ground,” said Professor Luke O’Neill, an immunologist at Trinity College Dublin in Ireland following europe’s response.
“So it’s this initial number of deaths that counts. And there are many more deaths in Sweden.”
Officially, Sweden still supports its long-term plan and country combat plans when it reopens.
However, many Swedes have doubts.
Christina Dahlgren, Malmo’s architect, says she has faced negative reactions when criticizing social media strategy.
“I don’t do a percentage of anything on my personal Facebook anymore because other people tell me to close, I appreciate it.”
Others felt remote to consensus.
Dr Jon Tallinger, a Swedish doctor who left his post to make a crusade for a greater remedy for the elders from the pandemic, said that when he wore a mask in a store in May, “people thought he was going to steal the place.”
The Swedish government presents a mask and foreign citizens worry about its protection when dressed in one.
The Swedes have sometimes edited the plan. But it has fallen: a June poll found confidence was 45%, up from 56% in April.
Professor Katrina Eckerberg, a political scientist at Umea University, described Sweden in May as a “homogeneous society” where “people are happy to follow the recommendations.”
But in June, he said the public’s confidence in the strategy is “declining.”
Some others have protested against strategy in major cities for weeks, their organization remains small.
Allyson Plumberg, a protester, said: “We are demonstrating to show that we are satisfied with the existing Swedish strategy opposed to coronaviruses.”
These unfortunates wonder why Sweden chose such an exclusive route. Dahlgren said: “Those of us who are critics are impressed. We don’t understand: do you know something we don’t know?”
Experts have questions. Some accuse Sweden of rejecting the way the virus works, such as the spread of other people without symptoms, and claim that Sweden has risked lives by not treating evidence in the same way as other countries.
Sweden says it uses a science-based approach: regulations based on what we know about the virus.
But these experts point to how Sweden expected widespread collective immunity, there is no concrete evidence that this can be achieved, and how the evidence now shows that this does not seem possible.
O’Neill said Sweden had reacted to the science at the time: “We didn’t know how contagious the Array was. We didn’t know that asymptomatic propagation was a feature, and neither were swedes.”
“And other countries need to be more competitive. And unfortunately, the ultimate competitive technique proved to be the right maximum.”
Professor Jan Albert, an infectious disease expert at Karolinska Instituet, said it is too early to assess the good fortune of the Swedish strategy: “I think we may have done it before and start preparing for further spread more quickly. when the first signs of caution have arrived.”
Not all the experts have been so kind.
Olle Kampe, an endocrinologist at the Karolinska Institute, told Insider in the past: “We sacrifice the elderly and others with diseases.”
Annika Linde, Tegnell’s predecessor as lead epidemiologist, told The Local that she first supported the approach.
But at the end of May, he thought again.
“The fact is that Sweden has made it so particular from the beginning: we go to our elderly population. But how can you claim such a thing without taking any action commensurate with it?”
Tallinger said that in May, after the uptick in deaths in Sweden, the country “as a kind of horror movie.”
He said other people were unwilling to the government, even when the deaths soared.
“When we wake up in Sweden, the feeling of guilt will be so overwhelming that there are two options: we leave everything or admit that we were wrong.”
Cases and deaths in Sweden have decreased significantly. But experts warn that they are opposed to concluding that the strategy has been a success, pointing to the highest number of deaths and the widespread lack of immunity, and how Sweden now warns that it is opposed to a wave of now, like other countries.
“Mortality rates have fallen, but that doesn’t replace the way our strategy has failed. And we don’t know when rates will go back up,” Tallinger said.
Many of those who have fought blockades in other countries have said Sweden’s plan prioritizes the economy.
Its economy now appears to be the least affected in Europe.
But this has been saved: foreign tourism and industry are being decimated and social estrangement has reduced people’s activities.
The Swedish National Institute for Economic Research forecasts a 5.4% drop in Sweden’s GDP in 2020, after forecasting a 1% increase in December 2019.It also expects unemployment to rise from about 3 percentage points to 9.6% between the end of 2019 and the end. 2021.
Mikael Bask, an economist at Uppsala University, said the maximum number of retail outlets remained open, but shorter hours and declining attendance affected revenue.
He pointed to the almost widespread absence of tourists.
Stefan Westerberg, a leading economist at the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce, said that “Sweden and Stockholm are in deep recession.”
“In a very short period, starting in mid-March, we experienced a sharp drop in economic activity and a sharp increase in unemployment and corporate bankruptcies.”
He said Stockholm is the most affected country and warned that “the crisis can lead to consistently high levels of unemployment.”
He fears that tourists will be afraid to visit: “Sweden would possibly be affected asymmetrically through the assessment of many countries of the intended dangers of travelling to Sweden.”
Sweden is checking its readiness for the crisis and Prime Minister Stefan Lefven has ordered a public inquiry into the resolution for a lockout. “We have thousands of dead, ” he said.
In May, Tegnell expressed doubts about Sweden’s response: “If we were to encounter the same disease with the same wisdom as today, I think our answer would be somewhere between what Sweden has done and what the rest of the world has done.”
“Clearly, there are improvements in what we have done in Sweden.”
But overall, he said the plan remains the right one and that Sweden will stick to it.
“We still believe that the strategy is good, but we can make improvements.”
Tegnell lamented the highest number of “surprising” deaths, but described it as unlucky and unrelated to the lack of confinement, as a giant proportion of those deaths occurred in residences.
Tegnell said it was unclear whether a lock would protect them, given guest bans. Some political parties say long-term upheavals are at stake in the fitness care formula.
If those other points are to blame, the highest number of deaths in Sweden would be independent of their lack of blockade.
In fact, some other closed countries have mortality rates for older people.
Richard Nordgren, a Swedish Norse correspondent for Finnish newspaper Hufvudstadsbladet, said he had “spoken to others who killed their loved ones at COVID-19, and who are clearly devastated by death, but who are not devastated either.” Blaming politicians and the public aptitude authority.”
But critics say the deaths of other older people in Sweden seem insensitive because the plan meant that society had taken some steps towards them. The care centers also reported PPI shortages and were not allowed to supply oxygen to patients.
Doctors were asked to prioritize patients based on points such as age, adding rules in Stockholm that do not offer extensive care to patients over the age of 80.
O’Neill said the locks were designed to prevent the virus from reaching other vulnerable people and the elderly inside and outside nursing homes by slowing the spread of the infection to those who interact with them.
“The closure is justified if only to protect those other people in retirement homes,” he said.
Pekka Nuorti, a professor of epidemiology at Tampere University in Finland, said he did not yet know whether Sweden’s reaction was a mistake or not: “If there is a widespread flow of coronavirus in the community, it is very difficult to protect those at risk.” groups. Array “
“The virus may place little openness for care facilities for the elderly and vulnerable populations.”
Tallinger said Sweden had prevented the fitness formula from being overtaken because it sacrificed so many older people.
“It’s like creating a symbol that we don’t have restrictions and we’re fine anyway because the hospitals are full. But why are hospitals full? Because no one can do it if you’re over 80.”
“We have to pretend. We’re putting him in position to make the Swedes revel in good.”
A doctor working in a giant hospital in Gothenburg, who was not allowed to speak, said the elderly remedy had become “a taboo topic to communicate on” and “a very sensitive subject on which everyone is afraid to express their opinion.” .
Sweden is now offering more investment to nursing homes and local authorities. He adjusted the rules of the restaurant, requiring a meter among the customers, and reiterated the guidelines of social distance.
The Public Health Agency is also able to update its rules after overcrowding reports.
Many experts say Sweden’s plan will work in the coming months.
Anders Bjorkman, a professor of microbiology at the Karolinska Institutet, said it is “disconcerting” that Sweden has behaved worse than much of Europe.
But he said it’s not necessarily the plan’s fault: “I think it’s not necessarily the methods but their implementation that’s the problem.”
Albert said , “To some extent, it’s too early to really respond because, in my opinion, we’re just at the beginning. And it won’t be imaginable to say anything more definitively until maybe a year later. Next winter. “
Lina Nordquist, the Swedish Liberal Party’s fitness policy spokesman, said good luck in politics could be known over time.
“Most of us are quite convinced that we may not know for a long time which country has selected the most productive strategy. We may not know about the mortality rates so far, because the pandemic is a marathon.”
“The most vital is as many lives as possible,” he adds, from the effects of things like unemployment and isolation.
He added: “People who think our strategy has failed don’t know it either, because we can’t know until the pandemic leaves.”
Helga Nowotny, former president of the European Research Council, told Insider: “The jury is still absent, but the Swede” will be intensely tested for some time.”
The most damning evidence opposing Sweden is its death to other countries.
O’Neill, like many experts, said that comparing Sweden’s deaths with countries like the US or the UK is “scientifically insane” because of its demographic, cultural and reporting differences.
The key, he said, is to compare Sweden to its neighbours, with cultural and political backgrounds.
More than 5,600 people died there. Their deaths are five times higher than denmark’ deaths, almost 11 times higher than in Norway and more than nine times higher than finland. They all had stricter restrictions.
“The clinical assessment is that Sweden is obviously in a much worse situation than, say, Norway or Denmark,” O’Neill said.
“I suppose no one means you’re wrong, maybe. But compare Sweden and Norway, the facts are hunting you in the face.”
The good fortune of these countries is consistent with studies that claim that locks save lives. The lockout is estimated to have saved 3 million lives across Europe.
Krista Kiuru, Finnish Minister of Social Services, attributed the closure of Finland and the general recommendations of estrangement and hygiene for her good luck to Insider: “The restrictive measures imposed and the recommendations issued have been effective in reducing the epidemic and protective groups at risk.
Finland closed schools, banned meetings of more than ten people and stopped meals in restaurants.
She said Finland, while smoothing restrictions, tracks the stage on a daily basis, with weekly updates of outbreak forecasts advising next steps.
The processes are in other countries, which so far seem to contradict claims that their deaths are increasing.
And while her restrictions on comfort mean that life resembles Sweden’s, her plans still imitate her.
Norway, Denmark and Finland did not revel in a national peak, while countries such as Germany and Australia continued to test and block regions to prevent further epidemics.
Sweden has not indicated that it will do the same, and its verification rate has been lower than that of many countries, its rates are now rising.
O’Neill said Sweden’s plan appears to have been based on the assumption that countries would only make significant and strict blockades until the end of the pandemic.
Instead, he said, countries have used padlocks to buy time for what works and locate new medical treatments.
“We were all supposed to end up with the same death toll,” he said. “That’s not the case. There are fewer deaths thanks to advances in medicine.”
Sweden has now put more stringent regulations in place than countries with lighter locks.
Denmark, for example, now allows meetings of one hundred people, double Swedish dominance.
Nordgren said that since countries exclude travel, “Sweden has a kind of out-of-progress in Europe.”
Sweden needs the negative effects of isolation on fitness.
O’Neill said he understood if it only worked over time: “It’s a question. But did the blockade do everything wrong or not? At the moment, it’s not clear.”
“The block will come at a price. Maybe Sweden will justify this. But let’s wait and see what the numbers are.”
He said the lesson learned how complicated it is to protect vulnerable people.
But Tallinger, the doctor, said Sweden had not implemented enough regulations on which ones worked.
“How are you going to fix the cash when you didn’t do anything?”
Experts also theorize that other countries with other cultures, especially the United States, have probably faced a crisis if they review Sweden’s plan.
The next few months will tell us that Sweden’s bet on a long-term win works. But skeptics say there are no positive lessons.
“If you let the monster pass wild, other people will die. We’ve had the experience. We know the results. We may not be informed of anything,” Tallinger said.
Get the latest research on the economic and advertising effect of Business Insider Intelligence coronavirus on how COVID-19 affects industries.