Economics: Lessons From COVID-19 Crisis - Are The Swedes Too Complacent?

 (Drivebycuriosity) - There is a rising political pressure to open the economies again. Some countries and some states in the US started to ease the severe lockdowns. The backers of a re-opening - and often massive critics of the lockdowns - refer to Sweden. The Scandinavian country goes her own way. Sweden refused to lockdown and keeps factories, shops, ice cream parlors, hairdressers, gyms, schools & kindergartens open. How are they doing?

Today in Sweden about 16% of the tested are positive and the country has 233 deaths per 1 million population (worldometers ). In neighbor country Finland just around 5% of the tested are positive and the country has 36 deaths per 1 million population. In Norway are 5% positive tested and there 38 deaths per 1 million population.

Obviously the situation in Sweden is much worse than in the neighbor countries which have a similar population. The Scandinavians are not known for a lot of kissing & hugging like Italians, French or the French. The Scandinavian culture stands for a more restrained, coolish & disciplined behavior which constraints the spread of viruses. All 3 countries have a very low density which also reduces the infection risks (wikipedia).

 ( worldometer )


Unfortunately the numbers of new cases & deaths in Sweden are still rising fast - about 3% daily (see also spiegel.de/wissenschaft). Much faster than in Norway and Finland. How long can Sweden hold on?.