"After a late autumn surge in infections led to rising hospitalizations and deaths, the government has abandoned its attempt -- unique among Western nations -- to combat the pandemic through voluntary measures.
Like other Europeans, Swedes are heading into the winter facing restrictions ranging from a ban on large gatherings to curbs on alcohol sales and school closures -- all aimed at preventing the country's health system from being swamped by patients and capping what is already among the highest per capita death tolls in the world.
The clampdown, which started last month, put an end to a hands-off approach that had made the Scandinavian nation a prime example in the often heated global debate between opponents and champions of pandemic lockdowns.
Admirers of the Swedish way as far as the U.S. hailed its benefit to the economy and its respect for fundamental freedoms. Critics called it a gamble with human lives. With its shift in strategy, the government is now siding with those advocating at least some mandatory restrictions.
When the pathogen swept across Europe in March, Sweden broke with much of the continent and opted not to impose mask-wearing and left known avenues of viral transmission such as bars and nightclubs open. As late as last month, Swedes enjoyed mass sporting and cultural events and health-care officials insisted that the voluntary measures were enough to spare the country the resurgence in infections that was sweeping Europe.
Weeks later, with total Covid-19-related deaths reaching nearly 700 per million inhabitants, infections growing exponentially and hospital wards filling up, the government made a U-turn. In an emotional televised address on Nov. 22, Prime Minister Stefan Lofven pleaded with Swedes to cancel all nonessential meetings and announced a ban on gatherings of more than eight people.
Last week Sweden's total coronavirus death count crossed 7,000. Neighboring Denmark, Finland and Norway, all similar-sized countries, have recorded since the start of the pandemic 878, 415 and 354 deaths respectively.For the first time since World War II, Sweden's neighbors have closed their borders with the country.
One reason Sweden stuck to its approach for so long is the high degree of independence and authority the health agency and other similar state bodies have under Swedish law.
The public face of the country's pandemic strategy was Anders Tegnell, Sweden's chief epidemiologist.
Dr. Tegnell declined to be interviewed this week, but in earlier conversations with The Wall Street Journal and other media he said lockdowns were unsustainable and unnecessary. His agency has continued to discourage mask-wearing just as the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control, a European Union agency whose headquarters are located near Dr. Tegnell's office in Stockholm, recommends wearing them.
In recent months, Dr. Tegnell predicted Swedes would gradually build immunity to the virus through controlled exposure, that vaccines would take longer than expected to develop, and that death rates across the West would converge.
Instead, the West's first coronavirus vaccine was authorized in Britain last week, Sweden's death rate remains an outlier among its neighbors, and Dr. Tegnell acknowledged in late November that the new surge in infections showed there was "no sign" of herd immunity in the country.
Meanwhile, Sweden's laissez-faire pandemic strategy has failed to deliver the economic benefits its proponents had predicted. In the first half of the year, Sweden's gross domestic product fell 8.5% and unemployment is projected to rise to nearly 10% in the beginning of 2021, according to the central bank and several economic institutes.
Fear of the virus and the government's advice to avoid social interactions have weighed on domestic demand, damaging business and investor confidence, said Lars Calmfors, an economist and member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. "Countries that had mandatory restrictions have done better than us."" [1]
You won't pee against the wind. As long as people are afraid of the virus, the economy is in decline. Here only in Lithuania, the crowd of uneducated former and current villagers is not afraid of anything, buys like crazy, dies like flies in autumn. It is good that they cannot justify their stupid behavior using example of the Swedes now.
1. U.S. News: Holdout Sweden Ends Its Covid-19 Experiment
Pancevski, Bojan. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]07 Dec 2020: A.6.
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