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SWEDEN AND CORONAVIRUS.
I could have spent the entire pandemic debunking (clickbaity) and sensation-happy journalists and talking heads on their (mis)representation of Sweden. I didn't, so here's a short thread instead: https://twitter.com/JaniceBrauner/status/1304120946681425920
I could have spent the entire pandemic debunking (clickbaity) and sensation-happy journalists and talking heads on their (mis)representation of Sweden. I didn't, so here's a short thread instead: https://twitter.com/JaniceBrauner/status/1304120946681425920
For months and months, the entire press corp of int "journalists" stated that Sweden followed a herd immunity strategy. The concept makes no sense (thanks, @thehowie @JuliaLMarcus) and Swedish health experts, gov officials and epidemiologists said we didn't. All to no avail.
Everyone still seemed to believe that Sweden recklessly ignored the pandemic, sacrificed its elderly on the altar of some voodoo theory - that's why the otherwise admired Scandi country topped the charts in per-capita death rates. Neither claim is true. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/19/anger-in-sweden-as-elderly-pay-price-for-coronavirus-strategy
Sweden did NOT do nothing, which I've written about extensively since March. Swedish society changed a lot -- but in ways that made scientific, practical, and pragmatic sense and NOT in a heavy-handed, top-down manner.
@aier
https://www.aier.org/article/what-sweden-has-done-right-on-coronavirus/
https://www.aier.org/article/the-scandinavian-experiment-open-vs-close/
@aier
https://www.aier.org/article/what-sweden-has-done-right-on-coronavirus/
https://www.aier.org/article/the-scandinavian-experiment-open-vs-close/
We can track this, by looking at restrictions, at behavior, at the availability of hand sanitizers and special private-sector measures, of unions taking sensible measures to safeguard their members, of mobility data showing people working from home.
Formally, friends and colleagues at @UniofOxford captured this in the much-discussed Oxford Covid Gov tracker:
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/covid-stringency-index?tab=chart&year=2020-05-07&time=2020-01-22..2020-09-10&country=DNK~FIN~DEU~ISL~ITA~NOR~SWE~GBR~USA~AUS
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/covid-stringency-index?tab=chart&year=2020-05-07&time=2020-01-22..2020-09-10&country=DNK~FIN~DEU~ISL~ITA~NOR~SWE~GBR~USA~AUS
It's clear that Sweden (the turquoise-like line towards the bottom) acted LIKE OTHER COUNTRIES, but less invasively and for a shorter period of time. Over the summer, many other countries regained their senses and followed suit. Sweden's corona practices are no longer unique
The reason for Sweden's terrifyingly high death rate is not yet clear, but with two co-authors (Dan Klein at @MasonEconomics, and Christian Bjørnskov at @AarhusUni @IFN_Stockholm) I make a decent case that much of it was out of our control.
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3674138
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3674138
For several reasons, Sweden was in a uniquely poor situation to deal with #covid19, ranging from Stockholm's NYC-like metro area/population density to the timing of Stockholmers' Alpine travels https://capx.co/in-a-big-city-pandemic-comparing-countries-has-limited-value/
People like @JacobGudiol @HaraldofW @effectsfacts have illustrated how Sweden's excess mortality spiked earlier than other Nordics, & that last year's flu season was unusually mild -- leaving many fragile elderly alive whose counterparties in other countries succumbed in 2019
We show that Sweden have a larger proportion of its population above the age of 70 (risk factor), and within that group, has an older population. That elderly care facilities in Stockholm are larger than elsewhere, with more staff overlapping. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12115-020-00508-0
We show that Sweden has the community and demographics of continental countries like Belgium
and that compared to Danes, elderly Swedes are about 50% more likely to live in care homes.
and that compared to Danes, elderly Swedes are about 50% more likely to live in care homes.
Tl;dr: Int. commentators have been quick to scapegoat Sweden, misrepresent what happens there, and tell an erroneous tale of its experience of #covid19. Journalists covering Sweden have lots to make up for and @TheAtlantic just touched the surface.
P.S. Perhaps it is too much to ask of an American populace (that by and large couldn't locate Sweden on a map) to accurately account for the many differences between the Nordic countries. But couldn't journalists and academics HELP by at least accurately depicting reality?
