Is Sweden throwing caution to the wind and ignoring social distancing or are they being reasonable during the pandemic? The HighWire went to Sweden to get to the truth.
The first one. They are valuing economic health above physical health. Doesn't fit my definition of reasonable.
Anger in Sweden as elderly pay the price for Coronavirus strategyThe values below comparing Sweden to its Nordic neighbours are a week old, but still illustrate the point:
As of today [14 Apr], over 1,000 Swedes have died from Covid-19, an increase of 114 deaths on the previous day's figure and around 11,440 have been infected, out of a population of 10 million.
Denmark (population 5.6 million) has seen 300 deaths and 6,500 cases,
Norway (5.3 million) has seen a death toll of 140 with 6,600 cases,
Finland (5.5 million) has been relatively unscathed with 64 deaths and just 3,000 cases.
https://www.rte.ie/news/2020/0414/1130498-sweden-approach-coronavirus/... so Swedish death rate (per head of population) is roughly 2x Denmark's, 4x Norway's and 8x Finland's.
Personally, I opt for freedom.
What this means to me is, I can do whatever I want, as long as I don't hurt anybody else.
Government should advertise and warn by shouting the dangers all over the place, and by offering ideas about what to do. Other than that, I am free.
I mean, if people want to go out in public after they have heard all about the dangers, that's up to them... just like they can find any number of ways to commit suicide. If everybody else heeds the precautions and stays indoors, great. I'll have fun out there with my buddies who feel like I do.
Get government out of it except for massive advertising, so people cannot say that they were not warned.
