How Sweden Fought Covid With No Lockdown and No Facemasks – Did the Swedish No-Lockdown Work? As numerous countries around the world raced to impose a fascist-style lockdown, one country refused. That is not to say that Sweden did not impose restrictions to fight Covid-19, but the Swedish approach was largely voluntary and far more in line with what you would expect in a free and democratic country. Sweden did implement some laws, such as banning gatherings of more than 50 people, restricting visits to care homes, and restaurants and bars only allowed to provide table service. Actions such as good hygiene, working from home, and avoiding public transport were also encouraged. Yet no mandatory lockdown was imposed, gyms, restaurants and bars were kept open, and young children have being going to school all through the pandemic. Furthermore, Sweden has not forced citizens to were facemasks, with facemasks not even recommended in many instances.
The man at the centre of this strategy is Anders Tegnell, Sweden’s state epidemiologist. The Swedish constitution allows independent bodies to have considerable power outside of government, with Sweden’s response to Covid directed by public health officials. One of the core reasons why Sweden decided to take a more voluntary approach to fighting Covid-19 was in an attempt to make it more sustainable. Instead of constant, head-spinning law changes, as seen in many other countries, Sweden’s rules have been relatively consistent so far, and are predicted to remain consistent in the following months unless anything major changes. Another important reason why Sweden took this path was because officials decided - early in the pandemic - to take an “evidence-based” approach to tackling Covid, and they felt that other countries were imposing restrictions at a time when there was little scientific proof that these measures actually worked. Yet was their strategy a success?
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Sources:
BBC News (5 Aug. 2020) Coronavirus: Sweden's economy hit less hard by pandemic https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-53664354
CIA Factbook, Norway https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/no.html
CIA Factbook, Sweden https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/sw.html
CNN (Christiane Amanpour) (23 July, 2020) 'No proof,' Official defends Sweden's controversial Covid-19 move https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YQkiHIQ7Dw
Milne, R. (11 Sep. 2020) Anders Tegnell and the Swedish Covid experiment, Financial Times https://www.ft.com/content/5cc92d45-fbdb-43b7-9c66-26501693a371
UnHerd (Lockdown TV) (17 April, 2020) Why lockdowns are the wrong policy - Swedish expert Prof. Johan Giesecke https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfN2JWifLCY
Reuters (8 Sep. 2020) Positive Covid tests in no-lockdown Sweden hit lowest rate since pandemic began https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-sweden-strategy/positive-covid-tests-in-no-lockdown-sweden-hit-lowest-rate-since-pandemic-began-idUSKBN25Z2TM
Savage, M. (23 July, 2020) Did Sweden's coronavirus strategy succeed or fail? BBC News - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-53498133
Schraer, R. (5 Sep. 2020) Coronavirus: Tests 'could be picking up dead virus,' BBC News - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-54000629
Creative Commons Imagery:
Frankie Fouganthin https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Anders_Tegnell_in_2020_(3_av_15).jpg Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en
