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1) This piece on Sweden led to a debate marked by defensiveness and accusations of hurt natl pride. More valuable is to use piece to discuss what has been missing from analyses of Sweden. Here I present 6 issues under-addressed or ignored by intl media. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/07/business/sweden-economy-coronavirus.html?referringSource=articleShare
2) Issue #1: Impact of #COVID19 on minority communities. Focus on "how Swedes" deal w/COVID glossed over differences in how disease impacted different communities. Much higher per capita deaths in immigrant communities & local govt slow to react at start. https://twitter.com/ChrChristensen/status/1244653598694354944
3) Issue #2: Swedish egalitarianism? Most intl journalists simply ignored role of income/inequality re #COVID19. This missed big part of story in relation to possible spread of disease: lower pay, unable to "work from home," use of public transport. https://twitter.com/ChrChristensen/status/1279736200685850625
4) Issue #3: Ignoring local politics. Sweden is small, but local politics played a part in natl variations in #COVID19. How much of a part will be revealed later, but treating any nation as a single mass misses interesting local political-economic factors. https://twitter.com/ChrChristensen/status/1251516856864772097
5) Issue #4: The details of Swedish politics. Like the Swedish #COVID19 system/strategy or not, it's a relevant aspect of the Swedish response that public agencies are independent of the govt, and the govt is meant to take its lead from these experts. https://www.thelocal.se/20200330/whos-actually-in-charge-of-swedens-coronavirus-strategy
6) Issue #5: Social Democracy in decline. Intl (and domestic) outlets perhaps should have asked about possible impact of capitalism, market liberalization and consumer society on Swedish collectivism/solidarity, and if Sweden's #COVID19 strategy was maybe one for 1970, not 2020.
7) Issue #6: Sweden is increasingly a country like any other. Politics, immigration, #COVID19: it's time for intl media to abandon "mythical Sweden." Sweden's image as politically/socially/ethnically homogeneous makes for easy writing, but leads to stunted and weak analysis.
