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What I Learned From the COVID-19 Response in Sweden
Time will be the ultimate judge. However, the numbers so far indicate that Canada’s approach has been vastly more effective than Sweden’s in keeping down the relative number of cases and deaths.
Earlier this year, I left my home in Vancouver to start working as a visiting researcher in Stockholm, Sweden. The world has changed significantly since that time. Being away from home while the COVID-19 crisis grew from purported “media-borne hype” to the extraordinary pandemic it is today, has highlighted how cultural differences have led to differences in public health management.
According to the WHO Director General, in many wealthy countries hospitals are designed to operate in a ‘lean and mean’ and efficient manner. This is true for both Sweden and Canada where hospital capacity has diminished over the last several years. This is the key reason for the need to ‘flatten the curve’ (reduce infections) so as not to overwhelm an underprepared health care system and reduce mortality.
During the earlier stages of the epidemic, almost every country encouraged social distancing as an effective way for COVID-19 containment, Sweden and Canada…
