World

Sweden Refused To Shut Down Its Economy Over Coronavirus — Is It Working?

REUTERS

Anders Hagstrom White House Correspondent
Font Size:

When the rest of the world issued lockdown orders and distancing guidelines that crippled their economies, Sweden went a different direction. It issued minor lockdowns for vulnerable demographics, but has kept up business as usual for much of its population.

Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde has said the country is forgoing lockdowns in favor of “people taking responsibility themselves.” The strategy is known as “herd immunity,” in which the vulnerable are isolated while young and healthy get infected to develop immunity to the virus. Once enough of the healthy population has immunity, the strategy goes, the vulnerable can be reintroduced to society. As a result, Sweden’s bars, restaurants, and schools are still open, but other countries have been highly critical of the response, including President Donald Trump.

“I think we could have followed [Sweden’s] approach,” Trump said at a press briefing Friday. “And if we did follow that approach I think we might have two million people dead. Sweden is having a lot of difficulty.” (RELATED: Big Banks Received Billions In 2008 Bailouts, Now They’re Slow To Help Small Businesses)

(Photo by Misha Friedman/Getty Images)

Indeed, Sweden’s approach of isolating the elderly has not been successful, with one third of nursing homes having cases of the virus.

“The Scandinavian model simply outsources care from families to caretakers who visit dozens of clients every week. Caretakers are rarely tested for the virus but have simply been urged to stay at home if and shortly after experiencing symptoms,” the Washington Post reported. (RELATED: Victims Of Communism Memorial Foundation Adds Global Coronavirus Deaths To Its Tally Of Historical Victims Of Communism)

Advocates of the herd immunity strategy have also argued that avoiding lockdowns can prevent the economic disaster that has struck countries like the United States. Sweden, however, is still expected to lose 3.4 percent of its GDP in 2020, which is less than Spain and Italy, but more than the U.S.

As of April 10, Sweden had 9,865 confirmed coronavirus cases and 870 deaths, which puts its mortality rate at an astonishingly high 8.9 percent. This death rate is almost certainly due to a lack of testing, however.

Nevertheless, Sweden’s former State Epidemiologist Johan Giesecke remains confident that the country’s strategy is working.

“I think we will manage the epidemic without destroying the economy more than necessary,” he said, according to the Post. “The absolutely most important thing is to protect the elderly from getting infected. I think we succeed quite well in that. It lies in the Swedish national character to do as one is told.”

The country is still in the early stages of its outbreak, however, and the world will only know whether Sweden made the right call months down the line.

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel