Sweden's liberal pandemic strategy questioned as Stockholm death toll mounts

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I am so confused. I thought liberals favored strong lockdowns to destroy the economy and embarrass conservatives. Probably to also increase the numbers of abortions too. Or something like that... But, but...
 
It is true. Of the four Nordic countries, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, the Swedes chose the U.S. American/British model.
You can see how that turned out in this comparison:
The Nordic divide on coronavirus: Which country has the right strategy? (The Local, March 31, 2020)

And it's been getting worse for Sweden since then!
See the development here: https://nyheder.tv2.dk/samfund/2020-02-27-nyeste-corona-tal-fra-danmark-og-verden-saa-mange-er-smittede-doede-og-indlagte (TV2, April 4, 2020)
Scroll down to Døde siden første dødsfald = Deaths since the firs casualty. You can see a comparison between the Nordic countries and the USA. The latter is about to overtake both Italy and Spain!

Notice also the curve for Dødsfald I Danmark/Døde per dag = Deaths in Denmark/Deaths per Day, which appears to be not only flattening now but actually falling.

Are you enjoying yourself, applecorped!
 
When liberal means conservative

It just occurred to me that applecorped actually didn't understand his title for this thread, Sweden's liberal pandemic strategy questioned as Stockholm death toll mounts, which he got from Reuters. However, Reuters uses the word liberal the way we use it in Europe, i.e. it does not at all mean left-wing, the way applecorped seems to think. On the contrary, actually, it means conservative as in the name of the conservative Danish party Venstre:

Venstre (Danish pronunciation: [ˈvɛnstʁɐ], literally "left"), full name Venstre, Danmarks Liberale Parti (English: Left, Denmark's Liberal Party), is a conservative-liberal,[2][3][4] agrarian[10] political party in Denmark.
Venstre (Wikipedia)
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And it's true, of course, that Sweden is doing poorly: Sweden sees an 18% spike in coronavirus deaths in one day, bringing total to 333, as experts question liberal pandemic strategy and warn: 'We cannot head into complete chaos' (Daily Mirror, April 4, 2020)

Way to go, applecorped! We need as many warnings against that kind of 'liberals' as we can get! :sdl: (It hasn't gone unnoticed how fond you are of laughing dogs!)
 
dann said:
It is true. Of the four Nordic countries, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, the Swedes chose the U.S. American/British model.
You can see how that turned out in this comparison:
The Nordic divide on coronavirus: Which country has the right strategy? (The Local, March 31, 2020)

And it's been getting worse for Sweden since then!
See the development here: https://nyheder.tv2.dk/samfund/2020-02-27-nyeste-corona-tal-fra-danmark-og-verden-saa-mange-er-smittede-doede-og-indlagte (TV2, April 4, 2020)
Scroll down to Døde siden første dødsfald = Deaths since the firs casualty. You can see a comparison between the Nordic countries and the USA. The latter is about to overtake both Italy and Spain!

Notice also the curve for Dødsfald I Danmark/Døde per dag = Deaths in Denmark/Deaths per Day, which appears to be not only flattening now but actually falling.

Are you enjoying yourself, applecorped!
Click to expand...

Hmm... I added Australia to that chart, and we're currently sneaking along between Norway and Finland.

(New Zealand is bumping around on the bottom, like a catfish, keep up the good work New Zealand!)
 
Baylor said:
As of this post, Norway has more confirmed corona virus cases per capita than the US: 1 confirmed case for every ~950 persons in Norway. 1 confirmed case for every ~1,050 persons in the US
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That's mostly because, unlike the USA, Norway has done aggressive testing.

As per Worldometer, Norway has tested 19 528 per million citizens, while the USA has tested 4 933.

I think a more important number is numer of deaths, with Norway having 11 deaths per million citizens, and having quite stable numbers, while the USA has 26 deaths per million citizens and rising.

The other Scandinavian countries have 37 deaths per million citizens in Sweden and 28 in Denmark.

It was looking really bad at the start of the pandemic, with Norway's amount of confirmed cases rivaling those of countries like Italy and Spain, but it wasn't followed by the massive amounts of deaths we saw in those countries.

It was the aggressive testing that made it look so bad, but it was also that testing that made us come out ahead of the curve.
 
I might also add that when Reuters says liberal pandemic strategy, they don't mean that it comes from liberal political ideology. And for the Americans on the board, it certainly doesn't mean it comes from left wing politics.

No more than being liberal with sauce on your meatballs means you follow liberalism or left wing ideology.

Words can have different meaning in different contexts.
 
Ryokan said:
It was the aggressive testing that made it look so bad, but it was also that testing that made us come out ahead of the curve.
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I doubt the latter. I more think it is due to your health care system not being forced into EU austerity (aka "neoliberal") politics like Italy and Spain were.
 
Of course the OP article uses "liberal" in the literal sense of the word, which means basically "free", or "less restricted". i.e. a "liberal" policy allows more freedom than its opposite, which would not be "conservative". The opposite of "liberal" might be "authoritarian", "restrictive", or something similar.

So, Sweden has imposed few restrictions on activity due to the coronavirus. It has a liberal coronavirus policy.

This use of "liberal" sometimes confuses people. I frequently refer to the fact that the United States has extremely liberal gun control laws. In other words, the United States places very few restrictions on the right to own and use guns.

It's somewhat unclear whether applecorped understood that when he posted the OP. His rather brief posting style forces the rest of us into speculation at times.
 
Childlike Empress said:
I doubt the latter. I more think it is due to your health care system not being forced into EU austerity (aka "neoliberal") politics like Italy and Spain were.
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You can doubt it, but it's the truth. Large-scale testing combined with isolation, of course, of people who are tested positive is what makes all the difference.
That is also the way that one small corner of the Kingdom of Denmark managed to keep the virus in check.
It does require access to the tools of testing, however. The Faroe Islands had those! :)
 
Ryokan said:
That's mostly because, unlike the USA, Norway has done aggressive testing.

As per Worldometer, Norway has tested 19 528 per million citizens, while the USA has tested 4 933.
Click to expand...


I applaud your attempt to explain this to Baylor, but he doesn't want to understand the difference it makes. For everybody else those numbers say it all.
 
Meadmaker said:
Of course the OP article uses "liberal" in the literal sense of the word, which means basically "free", or "less restricted". i.e. a "liberal" policy allows more freedom than its opposite, which would not be "conservative". The opposite of "liberal" might be "authoritarian", "restrictive", or something similar.

So, Sweden has imposed few restrictions on activity due to the coronavirus. It has a liberal coronavirus policy.

This use of "liberal" sometimes confuses people. I frequently refer to the fact that the United States has extremely liberal gun control laws. In other words, the United States places very few restrictions on the right to own and use guns.

It's somewhat unclear whether applecorped understood that when he posted the OP. His rather brief posting style forces the rest of us into speculation at times.
Click to expand...
Yes, one wonders if certain readers understood.


Or not. It's a somewhat niggardly interpretation.
 
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