Robert Henderson
Sweden is the odd man out amongst first world nations when it comes to dealing with the corolavirus. The country has adopted a more relaxed regime than any other country, a regimes which allows for far more social mixing and much less interference with the economy.
Deaths from the deaths from corlavirus in Sweden are higher than their near neighbours in Scandinavia but importantly lower than for many first world countries., including the UK, viz:
Sweden has a population of 10.2 million; Denmark 5.8 million, Norway 5.3 Finland 5.5 million .
Let us assume for the sake of arithmetical simplicity that Denmark, Norway and Finland would have double the deaths if their populations were double what they are. That would mean
Norway 300 deaths
Denmark 642 deaths
Finland 144 deaths
At first glance that looks a persuasive argument for Sweden having made a mistake. However, now compare the UK with Sweden
Sweden’s death toll is 1,333
The UK death toll is 13,729 patients who have died in hospital https://www.itv.com/news/2020-04-16/coronavirus-death-toll-in-uk-increases-by-861-bringing-total-to-13-729/
The UK population is around 66 million
Sweden’s population is around a sixth of the UK
A sixth of 13,729 UK patients is 2,288
That compares the actual Swedish death toll of 1,333
Hence Sweden has an extrapolated death toll 955 lower than the UK despite adopting a much more liberal policy in dealing with the coronavirus. That cannot be called a failure. The Swedes chose freedom over fewer deaths bought at the cost of draconian laws attacking the individual.
The questions to consider are these:
1.Is the greater good served by the Swedes retaining their freedom to live a an much more normal life ?
or
adopting a more rigorous set of rules which may have resulted in fewer lives being lost?
2. Have the Swedes preserved much more of their economy by adopting for a greater degree of freedom
NB
I am assuming the death toll of both the UK and Sweden are just for hospital deaths. The UK figure most certainly is.
| 1 | Stockholm | 1,515,017 |
| 2 | Gothenburg | 572,799 |
| 3 | Malmö | 301,706 |
| 4 | Uppsala | 149,245 |
242,495 km² Land area of UK
Living In A Madhouse 