Sweden's Covid-19 Policies Bashed, But What do the Numbers Say?

Bashing Sweden for its allegedly lax rules on coronavirus lockdown does not make much sense to me.

In theory, Sweden intended to lock down the elderly and other vulnerable citizens more or less to a similar degree as in other countries. But, they intended to allow somewhat more relaxed, volutary regulations to healthier younger citizens who are more likely to survive. Thus if the strategy were carried out successfully, the death rate should be lower for Sweden than in other countries but the exposure rate and infection rate should be higher especially with the more mobile young people. Countries with more regulation should have a lower rate of infection.

The numbers are not so simple. According to Worldometers, as of June 11, there have been a total of 48,288 cases in Sweden or 0.0478 cases per capita. That is twentieth highest in the world (but lower than several western countries including San Marino, Andorra, Luxembourg, Spain, USA, Iceland, Belarus, Gibraltar, Belgium and Ireland).

However, in terms of per capita death rate, Sweden is seventh. So if you wish to bash other countries, go for San Marino, Belgium, Andorra, UK, Spain, and Italy. But America is tenth, so there aren't that many countries we can legitimately bash.

Sweden is followed by France, Netherlands and the USA. Hence, judging from the recent press, many Americans evidently feel they are in a position to criticize and ridicule these other countries for having more fatalities per capita, especially Sweden. But wait. It's not that simple.

Note that in terms of death rate per capita, all ten of these countries rank lower for per capita infection rate.Every single one in the Top 10. In other words, each country is experiencing a relatively high death rate compared to the infection rate. That is the opposite of what might be expected for these advanced Western medical care systems.

Let's take a look at other countries with high per capita infection rate. Qatar has the highest per capita infection rate in the world, but only the 70th highest death rate. That means a higher percentage of infected people in Qatar are getting well than in the European countries, and it's not even close.
Consider Singapore has the ninth highest infection rate per capita, but only 128th highest death rate.

So if you want to bash Swedish medicine, fine, but do not forget to heap immense praise on countries such as Qatar and Singapore, who are greatly outperforming the west. I am not aware of a simple explanation why this is true. However, look at the stats for Sweden (Statista.com) and you will see their high death rate is associated with a large number of deaths of people who are over 70 years old.

Perhaps, if you must bash Sweden (and I wish you would not), they could be bashed for not being able to protect elderly persons. But even after adjusting for age groups, the numbers say that the cure rate is much higher in so-called third world countries than in Europe. And within Europe, Sweden's numbers are comparable to or a little better than some of its neighbors. So, are bad regulations in Sweden causing high death rates in these other European countries, higher than in Sweden? How could that be possible? There must be something else besides rules that needs to be considered.

We have to admit that we do not have a cure for Coronavirus. As long as there is a single death from this disease, it is too many and as a society, we must all strive to do better. The ability to protect people from contracting the illness, and the ability to treat the illness are going to improve with time. Different countries are trying different things, and we can all learn from one another if we quit bashing each other and figure out what works well and what does not. It is inappropriate to issue harsh condemnation of policies and medical care in any country, especially one that is not your own, because this disease breaks all the rules. It is NOT simple to understand, and we ALL have much to learn about it. It is not just Sweden that wants to improve its performance.

So, in my opinion Sweden is not insane and not a rogue nation. Sweden does not deserve to be bashed. They should not be accused of medical malpractice. Yes, they can and should evolve better prevention, detection and treatments. So should we all.