By Dr. Nicholas Waddy
The year 2020 has been a year of firsts: The world faced its first (modern) pandemic, killing hundreds of thousands and shuttering vast swathes of the global economy. Along the way, the political world was turned upside down: for the first time in living memory, leftists found themselves castigating, rather than idolizing, socialist Sweden.
The reason? The Swedes, hard-headed contrarians that they are, had the temerity to buck the global fad for strict lockdowns and obsessive masking. They reasoned that such measures would be unsustainable, economically and socially, so instead of shutting businesses and schools, and harassing or fining anyone caught in public without a mask, they advised people to practice sensible social distancing and to avoid unnecessary outings and exposure.
At first, the mainstream media throughout the Western world gleefully reported the high death rate that Sweden’s mild model of pandemic control produced, especially among the elderly and nursing home residents.
Sweden’s “experiment” with liberty (never a concept beloved of left-wingers) had failed, or so it seemed.
Now, though, Sweden’s light touch with respect to coronavirus countermeasures is looking sounder and sounder. Sweden’s numbers of new infections are low and trending lower. Daily deaths are approaching the vanishing point. There is speculation that, because the disease was allowed to spread more freely among those least vulnerable, Swedes may already benefit from a degree of herd
immunity .
Sweden’s successes don’t end there, however. The toll of the pandemic, while it is often measured in raw numbers of “COVID deaths”, stretches far beyond mortality. Among the worst aspects of the crisis has been the economic carnage it has visited on the worst affected countries. In the U.S., second quarter GDP is down by almost 33%! Unemployment peaked at almost 15% . These are numbers generally associated with a depression, although economists expect that the downturn, sharp as it is, will be brief.
Sweden, meanwhile, was the only country in Europe in the first quarter of 2020 to see its GDP rise. Sweden’s overall economic contraction in 2020 is expected to be modest, compared to the EU as a whole and to badly-hit countries like the U.K., Italy, and Spain.
Swedish companies are also outperforming expectations, while Swedish unemployment is lower than ours: most recently, it stands
at 9.2% .
Lest we forget, economic pain (and the limitation thereof) also correlates to many other factors that govern a country’s degree of suffering during the pandemic. Poor economic performance can and usually does foster a rise in suicides, violent crime, drug use, alcohol abuse, domestic disputes, child abuse, as well as anxiety and depression. Moreover, long and rigid lockdowns, combined with scaremongering in the news media, can even produce more sickness and death, because many people in need of urgent medical care choose to defer it, assuming that it is too dangerous to leave their homes.
We can safely assume that all of these problems are less pronounced in Sweden, given the tempered nature of its pandemic response, and the shallowness of its virus-related recession.
There are many ways to measure a country’s performance in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, but surely the simplest is this: has a given nation managed to minimize the “pain” (and death) afflicting its citizens, while maximizing the “gain” they seek in terms of employment, economic activity, and the preservation of their freedoms and quality of life?
Sweden, it would appear, has struck this balance remarkably well. After a rocky start, especially in nursing homes, Swedish authorities have managed to wrestle the virus into submission, such that it is now almost unheard of for Swedes to die of COVID-19. Simultaneously, Swedes are going to work, going to school, visiting restaurants and businesses, and enjoying normal human interactions without
the constant need to wear facemasks .
That sounds, to a mere layman, like a story of success, not failure. And, if the “socialist Swedes” have found a pandemic strategy that works, we have to ask: why are their “progressive” allies around the world afraid to admit it?
Dr. Nicholas L. Waddy is an Associate Professor of History at SUNY Alfred and blogs at: http://www.waddyisright.com . He appears weekly on the Newsmaker Show on WLEA 1480/106.9.
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Please leave a comment: Your opinion is important to us!
Lastly, no true empirical data was provided to back up the assertions of the author.
Everything was Op/Ed; one man’s opinion.
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Here is some empirical data:
The population density of Sweden is 62 people per square mile and the population density of the United State is 91 people per square mile.
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What say, you professor?
….[redacted]
Professor the population density and demographics of Sweden geography are completely different than anywhere else in Europe or the United States.
Professor you left out the fact Swedes practice social distancing willing without the government policing them.
You also left out the fact that the conservative right was for shut downs and masks in Sweden.
Dear Professor apples and oranges….
…..oranges and apples……
The Swedes are nowhere near reaching herd immunity.
Democrats are killing people of Covid to defeat Donald Trump!
Is The Narrative Falling Apart?
Der Herr,
It’s a global conspiracy?
That leads back to the Jews, of course?
Thank you Der Herr!!!!
A legitimate medical quarantine only quarantines the ill sick.
Not 330 million people.
This quarantine was designed to crash the American economy and defeat Donald Trump.
This is done in Phase I of an epidemic. You try to find and isolate cases. Dumb fucked that up by reacting too late. This is why you are in Phase II. The number of cases is so high that it cannot be traced with the available resources. As a consequence, you have to reduce contacts and wear masks in general. If you are a good boy and reduce the number of cases sufficiently, you might even get back to Phase I. But let us be honest here. It requires a level of composure uncommon in the USA.
Since most of the world took the same approach, I don’t believe it was designed to defeat Trump, but the Libtards are milking it for all its worth. LOL
Thank you, Paul Revere!!!!!
As if there’s one answer, that’s very simplistic. Everywhere has a different situation. Some have an older population, some are more congested, some more urban areas or bigger population. Sweden doesn’t have many big urban areas, population relatively small, many single person households.
–As if there’s one answer, that’s very simplistic
LOL. You mean like the message the corporate controlled mass media across the entire world has tried to push down the throats of people about the “massive” dangers of a cold/flu like virus that has had no significantly greater negative impact on human health and life than any of its prior variations? Got to keep that “COVID death ticker” perpetually on the news so that fear remains on the minds of everyone and shame everyone who doesn’t wear a mask because they’re selfish and don’t consider other people’s safety. Let’s not tell them that the virus is much smaller than the actual strands of the fabrics that make up the masks or the worthless bandanas that some people wear.
This entire pandemic has been a “plandemic” and “scamdemic”, a technocratic social engineering experiment from the insane, power-hungry, greedy global elite who sit at the top of their pyramid, executed into action via their global bureaucracy and puppet politicians, on the rest of the human population at the expense of their sanity, forcing people out of work while their children no longer can interact in a socialized school environment. These mega-rich sociopaths never suffer in times of their planned “crisis” like these. They only get richer because like the rich banking racketeers throughout history who funded both sides of the war (see the book “War is a Racket”) , these greedy bastards capitalize on other people’s suffering to further consolidate their power and ability to make themselves richer so they can live their easy lives while others work as slaves for them.
I guess the governor of Texas is deep state, Scott?
Personally, I believe Shadow may be an agent provocateur for the deep state.
If there’s one answer, that’s very simplistic?
What are you talking about Scott?
Wow-we-zowie!!!!!!
You mean to say it’s as complicated as Amway?
Professor- your article is nonsense. Swedish people trust their government, have a sense of community responsibility and adhere to social distancing rules. Their society is not rife with poverty making it less vulnerable. Their people are well educated. Americans, like this guy, distort reality to fit their political narratives. Fascinating – so much of your country lives in a realty of not “what is” but “what ought to be.”
The next, sorry to say so, idiot publishing misinformation on this page. Sweden has close to 10 times the lethality rate compared to Finland and 12 times that of Norway. The Swedish method failed and even the epidemiologist in chief admitted it.
On top of that, congratulations on cherry-picking the economics data from the first quarter of 2020. If you had looked further, you would have no point at all.
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/sweden-didnt-impose-a-lockdown-its-economy-is-just-as-bad-as-its-neighbors-who-did-2020-06-25
Reality Check for Democrats
The Democrat Party Train Wreck
How are statements of this conspiracy nutjob related to the current problem?
Anonymous,
I don’t even think he knows?