A scathing evaluation of Sweden’s COVID reaction reveals “failures” in controlling the virus
A scathing review has been released that evaluates the “failures” in the policy that governed Sweden’s response to the covid-19 pandemic.
The reviewpublished in the journal Humanities & Social Sciences Communications Tuesday, discusses how Sweden throughout the pandemic tried to avoid locks and orders to stay at home that were implemented by many of its neighbors.
The authors – from Sweden, Belgium, Norway and the USA – said that Sweden could achieve this by presenting advice from independent researchers as “extreme”, keeping the public in the dark about facts about how covid-19 is spread and not issuing any mandates.
This is despite the country’s history of collaboration between authorities and the scientific community and the public’s high trust in those in power.
As a result, Sweden had a higher mortality in covid than the surrounding Nordic countries.
“The Swedish response to this pandemic was unique and characterized by a morally, ethically and scientifically dubious laissez-faire approach, a consequence of structural problems in society,” the team wrote. “More emphasis was placed on protecting the ‘Swedish image’ than on saving and protecting lives or on an evidence-based approach.”
In the run-up to the covid-19 pandemic, the Swedish Public Health Agency had published two pandemic planning documents in the last decade to prepare for such an event, according to the review.
Although both focused on the value of antiviral drugs and vaccines to treat and prevent cases, they also stressed the importance of “limiting the consequences for individuals and society” and how “the negative effects on society must be kept to a minimum.”
So when COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization in March 2020, Sweden was determined to keep its economy going and emphasized individual responsibility rather than collective responsibility.
According to the review, the Prime Minister and the Minister of Health and Social Affairs referred “primarily to the Swedish Public Health Agency”, a sharp contrast from previous collaboration between the government and researchers.
Unlike the strict locks implemented by most of Europe, the PHA only recommended staying at home if you feel sick, washing your hands regularly, taking social distances and avoiding unnecessary travel.
Meanwhile, restaurants, bars and shops remained open; children under the age of 16 had to go to school in person without exception for those with family members at risk; and no worm mandate was ever implemented.
The review noted that the PHA eventually recommended face masks in hospital nursing homes in June 2020, but only in the treatment of confirmed or suspected covid patients.
The authors said that the PHA discouraged the use of masks and claimed that they were ineffective in helping to spread fear in the population and misinforming the public about how covid spreads, that asymptomatic people can be contagious and that masks protect the wearer and the environment.
According to the review, there was also a lack of transparency from the public health authorities. The number of intensive care units per region was not generally available and schools often did not inform parents or teachers when students tested positive for the virus.
Efforts were then made to actively crack down on medical researchers who criticized Sweden’s strategy and accused authorities of not being properly prepared.
When researchers presented their criticisms in social media, in interviews or in scientific journals, they were often reprimanded by their superiors for reasons such as that they were not allowed to use their university affiliation, even though it violates Sweden’s right to academic freedom of expression, according to the review.
In addition, the PHA also “discredited all criticism and national / international scientific evidence” and the authors say that the agency “cherry-picked” scientific articles that were in line with its point of view.
In the end, this led to Sweden receiving worse results from covid-19 than its Nordic neighbors.
At the end of December 2020, Sweden registered an average of 44 deaths in COVID-19 per 1 million people, according to Our World in Data.
For comparison, Denmark recorded 5 deaths per 1 million, Norway registered 0.5 deaths per 1 million and Finland registered 0.3 deaths per 1 million, the data show.
One month earlier, a report from the Swedish Health and Care Inspectorate showed that half of the country’s deaths at the time were among residents in nursing homes.
About a year in January 2022 – during the omicron wave – Sweden did better and registered 5 deaths per million.
However, the other three countries registered half as many deaths with Denmark as the highest with 2.4 per 1 million, shows Our World in Data.
“The cost in the form of infections and deaths from this pandemic in Sweden has been greater in some other more densely populated and more centrally located countries, but is still significantly higher than in the other Nordic countries,” the authors wrote. “This Swedish laissez-faire strategy has had a great human cost to Swedish society.”