Trust is Part of Governance

Sweden is different. The nation of 10 million people has been a model of social democracy for decades. Its approach to government is modes compared to the United States, France of the United Kingdom. In Sweden, only the prime minister has been assigned a chauffeur-driven car. The foreign minister takes the bus or the metro, daily in touch with ordinary citizens. Members of parliament are assigned offices the size of a sparse room in a German refugee camp.

The citizens of this nation live in one of the most socially just and least-corrupt countries in the world, for which they pay high taxes. The government is trusted, as are institutions and fellow Swedes. When Mona Sahlin, a deputy prime minister in the 1990s, bought a bar of chocolate, nappies, and some other personal items with a government credit card, she lost her job. Trust is part of governance, reliability part of the foundation of this nation. Thus the decision by the Swedish government to defy conventional wisdom and refuse to order a wholesale lockdown to control the COVID-19 pandemic was national logic, although its neighbors—Denmark for example—decided on lockdown and closed their borders.

‘Our Model May Prove More Sustainable’

“While other countries were slamming on the brakes”, Sweden allowed restaurants and bars to keep serving, and left preschools and grade schools open, while hairdressers and yoga studios continued their work. Eventually, gatherings of more than 50 people were banned, museums were closed and sporting events were canceled. “That’s roughly it”, noted the New York Times. There are almost no fines, and police officers can only ask people to respect the suggestions of the health authorities. “Pedestrians wearing masks are generally stared at as if they have just landed from Mars”. There is no full lockdown, confirmed Lena Hallengren, Sweden’s health minister, but many parts of Swedish society have shut down. Ridership on public transportation in Stockholm has dropped about 60 percent. Nearly all domestic flights in Sweden have been canceled. And all major ski resorts have closed voluntarily “It is a myth that life goes on as normal in Sweden”, Hallengren said. Many businesses are collapsing and unemployment is expected to rise dramatically. In other words, observed Lionel Laurent in the Washington Post, “Sweden isn’t a miracle coronavirus model”.

Anders Tegnell, the epidemiologist who is the mastermind of Sweden’s anti COVID-19 strategy, explained why he advised the government in Stockholm against a lockdown: “The long term sustainability of strict rules isn’t that big. You can only impose such restrictions for a limited time. So you need a different way, and our model may prove more sustainable”. In addition, reopening after lockdown will be difficult, Tegnell has said. Swedish political leaders rarely attend news conferences about the virus, since the Swedish constitution prevents the government from meddling in the affairs of independent administrative institutions such as the Public Health Authority.

‘Fighting the Virus by Learning to Live With it’

According to Tegnell, Sweden is “trying to do the same thing as most countries are doing—slow down the spread as much as possible. It’s just that we use slightly different tools than many other countries”. As a CNN journalist reported: “Sweden is fighting the virus by learning to live with it”. Critics argue that Tegnell is trying to have the country develop herd immunity, a controversial approach that aims to have many millions contract the disease so the wider population is resistant to infection down the line. According to Vox, “it is an idea that seemed to take hold in governments in the UK and Netherlands, before models showing such a policy would merely lead to more deaths led them to change course”. The lead Swedish scientist denies that developing herd immunity is his goal, but he told reporters it is “not contradictory” to his aims. Tegnell said that for him Sweden has two options. Either everyone gets vaccinated or the country needs to develop herd immunity—a strategy which may kill much of the elderly population.

Virologist Cecilia Soederberg-Nauclér of the Karolinska Institute, a medical research center near Stockholm, signed with more than 2000 other academics and experts a petition condemning the Tegnell strategy and demanding government intervention. The government-approved plan is “leading us to catastrophe”, the scientist declared. Politicians had decided “to let people die”. As of May, 2, Sweden had confirmed 22,082 COVID-19 cases, of which 1531 had received intensive care and 2,669 died. The most affected area was Stockholm and its suburbs. In April, Stefan Lofven, the prime minister, suggested the government needed to review its approach, in particular the “protection of people in elderly care should have been better. We need to look closer at what has gone wrong”. Sweden’s neighbor Denmark, which decided on lockdown measures on March 13, had registered by the first day of May 9,311 confirmed infections, and 460 deaths. “It is unclear”, said Bloomberg, which strategy will ultimately prove most effective, and even experts in Sweden warn it is too early to draw conclusions. But given the huge economic damage caused by strict lockdowns, the Swedish approach has drawn considerable interest around the world. Sweden’s unwillingness to lock down the country “could ultimately prove to be ill judged”, stated HSBC global research economist James Pomeroy. But if the infection curve flattens out soon, the economy could be better placed to rebound than the rest of Europe. Pomeroy pointed to some Swedish characteristics that may be helping the country deal with the current crisis: “more than half of Swedish households are single person, making social distancing easier to carry out. More people work from home than anywhere else in Europe, and everyone has access to fast internet, which help large chunks of the workforce stay productive away from the office”.

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