The Swedish response to the covid pandemic has become one of the most talked about topics of the last six months, and there's a lot of misinformation floating around. Since that's the case, and since I keep getting asked what the situation on the ground is really like in Sweden, I figured I'd write up a little history, covering the key events from a Swedish perspective, and detailing exactly which restrictions were put in place at what time point, and why.
But first, and perhaps most importantly, why did Sweden decide to follow such an aberrant path?
Actually, to be honest, Sweden could never have done otherwise.
The Swedish constitution declares that Swedes have the right to move freely within Sweden, and to leave the country if they so wish. There is a law, the Swedish infectious diseases act, which allows certain limited restrictions to be put in place, but
it doesn't allow for a general lockdown. And the power of the state to enforce restrictions on individuals is heavily limited. That is likely the main reason why the Swedish response to covid-19 has been so much more limited than that seen in other countries.
Do I think Swedish politicians are wiser than politicians in other countries? No, of course not. But while some other governments probably caved under internal pressure from their own media and external pressure from other governments and international organizations,
the Swedish government couldn't have caved even if it had wanted to.Large parts of Swedish mainstream media have actually been very pro-lockdown from the start, and have been much more in line with foreign media than they have been with the Swedish state. As an example, on March 13th, at the start of the pandemic, Peter Wolodarski, editor of Sweden's biggest daily broadsheet newspaper,
Dagens Nyheter, demanded a lockdown in line with other countries. And tabloids have been full of scare stories. As in every other western country,
Swedish media have been feeding people a daily dose of case numbers and death statistics that are never placed in any context. So, while media in most other countries have been marching in lockstep with their national governments, that has not been the case in Sweden.
Comment: There were unconfirmed reports about a possible hostage situation. The number of attackers remains unknown, and whether or not it involved the same attackers moving to six locations, or multiple groups/individuals.
Various shots of the attacks have made their way to social media:
Several videos allege to show the capture of some of the perpetrators. Unconfirmed if any are just suspects, or people unconnected with the attacks.
More updates:
UPDATE (11/3): Overnight the death count rose to 5, including an elderly man, woman, young passerby and a waitress. 22 were injured. Police are still looking for "at least one" gunman on the run. The dead attacker has been identified as 20-year-old ISIS wannabe Kujtim Fezjulai, an Austrian-North Macedonian. Shortly before the attack, he posted this selfie online: