This article takes the view that Govt should have done more to protect the elderly.
I am not making the arguments in the article but I am providing it so that we can see thousands of Sweden's deaths were in nursing homes. Like NY and CA and many other places they could have closed them down better and earlier.
---
Sweden’s Coronavirus Failure Started Long Before the Pandemic
Many countries have criticized the Swedish government’s lax lockdown, but the deadly mistakes of defunding elder care and decentralizing public health oversight were made before anyone had heard of COVID-19.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/06/2...ers-tegnell-started-long-before-the-pandemic/
The world has long looked to Sweden as a model society. The Nordic country of 10 million is known for its robust welfare state—where citizens enjoy a high standard of living, equal rights, and social security. In the past few decades, Sweden has also taken a place on the international stage as a humanitarian superpower, starting in the 1990s when it accepted 100,000 refugees fleeing the carnage of the Balkans and later during the Syrian crisis when it took in more refugees per capita than any other European country.
But that image has been questioned over the past few months. Sweden has become a global outlier in ignoring calls for coronavirus lockdowns. While Italy’s piazzas were empty and the French needed a permit to go jogging, Swedes were still sitting knee-to-knee drinking beers in Stockholm’s trendy Sodermalm district. As more countries imposed lockdowns, many public health experts argued that Sweden was giving priority to its economy rather than protecting the lives of its citizens.
Swedish authorities have repeatedly disputed that claim, arguing that the country’s goal is no different from that of other countries, namely to make sure its health care system is not overburdened, while protecting society’s most vulnerable—the only difference being that the government’s public health agency has issued recommendations rather than mandating certain behaviors, what’s considered a “light-touch strategy.”
In the past month, the criticism has grown louder as Sweden’s death toll, which last week passed 5,000, has raced beyond that of its Scandinavian neighbors, eclipsing the second-hardest hit country in the region, Denmark, with more than three times as many deaths per million residents. The high numbers have led Norway and Denmark, which opened up tourism between their countries in mid-June, to exclude Sweden from the travel bubble.
Swedish epidemiologist Anders Tegnell of the Public Health Agency is interviewed following a coronavirus press conference in Solna, Sweden, on April 9. JONATHAN NACKSTRAND/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
Even more detrimental to Sweden’s credibility is the fact that a large portion of deaths has occurred among the elderly—the very people the strategy was meant to protect. To many, this is proof that Sweden’s strategy has failed. Even Anders Tegnell, Sweden’s state epidemiologist and the architect of the light-touch strategy, has admitted that too many people have died and that, if he’d had the information available today back in March, he might have supported stricter measures within certain sectors of society. However, Tegnell still maintains that his overall strategy has not failed and that no one knows exactly what measures should have been taken.
Of course, it would be easy to dismiss Tegnell’s comments about “potential for improvement” as an abdication of responsibility. But a closer look reveals a more complex reality. Some criticisms of the Swedish COVID-19 response may still be premature, and others should rather be directed at mistakes made long before the current health crisis—namely the decline of central government oversight and, especially, a decadelong neglect of Sweden’s elderly population.
more at link...
I am not making the arguments in the article but I am providing it so that we can see thousands of Sweden's deaths were in nursing homes. Like NY and CA and many other places they could have closed them down better and earlier.
---
Sweden’s Coronavirus Failure Started Long Before the Pandemic
Many countries have criticized the Swedish government’s lax lockdown, but the deadly mistakes of defunding elder care and decentralizing public health oversight were made before anyone had heard of COVID-19.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/06/2...ers-tegnell-started-long-before-the-pandemic/
The world has long looked to Sweden as a model society. The Nordic country of 10 million is known for its robust welfare state—where citizens enjoy a high standard of living, equal rights, and social security. In the past few decades, Sweden has also taken a place on the international stage as a humanitarian superpower, starting in the 1990s when it accepted 100,000 refugees fleeing the carnage of the Balkans and later during the Syrian crisis when it took in more refugees per capita than any other European country.
But that image has been questioned over the past few months. Sweden has become a global outlier in ignoring calls for coronavirus lockdowns. While Italy’s piazzas were empty and the French needed a permit to go jogging, Swedes were still sitting knee-to-knee drinking beers in Stockholm’s trendy Sodermalm district. As more countries imposed lockdowns, many public health experts argued that Sweden was giving priority to its economy rather than protecting the lives of its citizens.
Swedish authorities have repeatedly disputed that claim, arguing that the country’s goal is no different from that of other countries, namely to make sure its health care system is not overburdened, while protecting society’s most vulnerable—the only difference being that the government’s public health agency has issued recommendations rather than mandating certain behaviors, what’s considered a “light-touch strategy.”
In the past month, the criticism has grown louder as Sweden’s death toll, which last week passed 5,000, has raced beyond that of its Scandinavian neighbors, eclipsing the second-hardest hit country in the region, Denmark, with more than three times as many deaths per million residents. The high numbers have led Norway and Denmark, which opened up tourism between their countries in mid-June, to exclude Sweden from the travel bubble.
Swedish epidemiologist Anders Tegnell of the Public Health Agency is interviewed following a coronavirus press conference in Solna, Sweden, on April 9. JONATHAN NACKSTRAND/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
Even more detrimental to Sweden’s credibility is the fact that a large portion of deaths has occurred among the elderly—the very people the strategy was meant to protect. To many, this is proof that Sweden’s strategy has failed. Even Anders Tegnell, Sweden’s state epidemiologist and the architect of the light-touch strategy, has admitted that too many people have died and that, if he’d had the information available today back in March, he might have supported stricter measures within certain sectors of society. However, Tegnell still maintains that his overall strategy has not failed and that no one knows exactly what measures should have been taken.
Of course, it would be easy to dismiss Tegnell’s comments about “potential for improvement” as an abdication of responsibility. But a closer look reveals a more complex reality. Some criticisms of the Swedish COVID-19 response may still be premature, and others should rather be directed at mistakes made long before the current health crisis—namely the decline of central government oversight and, especially, a decadelong neglect of Sweden’s elderly population.
more at link...
Last edited:
